The Andhra Pradesh high court on Thursday issued a stay order on the housing programme in R 5 zone in Amaravati. The three-member bench consisting of Justice D V S S Somayajuly, Justice Ch Manavendranath Roy and Justice Ravinadh Tilhari, directed the state government to stop construction of houses in the zone.

The Amaravati farmers have challenged the construction of houses in Amaravati. They have earlier opposed the distribution of house sites for the weaker sections in the R 5 zone. However, the state government secured clearance for the house sites distribution from the Supreme Court.

On July 24, chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy laid foundation stone for the construction of 50,000 houses here. The house sites were given to the eligible poor from the NTR and Guntur districts, even as the farmers opposed it.

The house sites in the R 5 zone were created by the present Jagan Mohan Reddy government to provide housing for the poor and weaker sections spread over Tadikonda and Mangalagiri Assembly constituencies. The government had allocated 1402 acres for the house sites in the R 5 zone.

The farmers and the Dalit Bahujan Welfare Association of Rayapudi approached the high court seeking cancellation of the house sites given to the 50,000 families in the R 5 zone. They have also appealed to the high court to cancel the construction of the houses, which was started by Jagan Mohan Reddy on July 24.

The state government had planned to construct all the 50,000 houses and hand them over to the beneficiaries. As the court had kept the orders aside and directed the government to stop construction of the houses, it is to be seen what the government would do now!

Tension prevailed in Amaravati on Saturday as the farmers planned for a procession to the Ambedkar memorial at Sakhamuru village. The memorial was proposed by the TDP government as part of the Amaravati capital city plan.

However, the memorial was discarded by the successive YSR Congress government, which later took up a similar project on Swaraj Maidan grounds in Vijayawada.

The farmers, who have been opposing development of layouts in Amaravati as part of the R 5 (Residential) zone. The YSR Congress government introduced this R5 zone to provide house sites for the people of Guntur and NTR districts.

The farmers have lost the case in high court and have approached the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, with the government starting development works in the layouts, the farmers are opposing the works. They have been holding protests against the government taking up works in the layouts to be given to the poor, even as the case is pending before the Supreme Court.

The police stopped the farmers from proceeding to the Ambedkar Memorial from Thullur camp. As the police stopped them, some farmers escaped from the police and reached Ambedkar Memorial at Sakhamuru village.

As there was tension in the village, the police allowed some leaders to go to Sakhamuru ending the trouble.

Meanwhile, the police arrested advocate and Jai Bheem Party president Jada Sravan Kumar in Vijayawada, who was scheduled to participate in the farmers protest. The other day, the police arrested Amaravati forum leader Srinivasa Rao, who planned an indefinite hunger strike in support of the Amaravati farmers.

The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday filed an affidavit in the high court on its judgement on Amaravati. Chief secretary Dr Sameer Sharma filed the affidavit on behalf of the state government.

It was on March 3, the high court had given judgement directing the state government to develop the layouts in Amaravati and give plots to the farmers in 30 days. As the 30 days deadline is ending on April 3, the chief secretary had filed the affidavit in the court.

The state government and the AP Capital Region Development Authority have issued notices to the farmers to get their plots registered. But the farmers have refused to register the plots seeking more clarity from the government on the plots and the layouts.

The farmers wanted the government to first develop the layouts and clarify whether it would keep Amaravati as the only capital. The farmers said that they would not come for registration of plots unless the government gave a commitment on single capital, withdrawing the three capitals plan.

Though the government and the APCRDA have written letters twice to the farmers, the latter did not come forward in the stipulated period set by the high court. The chief secretary is believed to have explained the same in the affidavit.

It is to be seen what the high court would say in the light of the farmers’ refusal to register the plots. The court is also likely to refer to the special discussion in the Assembly on its judgment during the budget session.

Heavy rains on Thursday put brakes on ‘Mahapadyatra’ of Amaravati farmers in Andhra Pradesh’s Prakasam district.

The organisers of ‘Mahapadyatra’, held to demand that Amaravati be retained as the only state capital of Andhra Pradesh, announced that the participants will stay in Gudluru. The walkathon will resume from the same village on Friday.

For last couple of days, the farmers, including women, were continuing the foot march despite intermittent rains. In view of the forecast of heavy rains, the organisers decided to halt it for a day.

Titled ‘court to temple’, the walkathon from Amaravati to Tirupati began on November 1.

Raising slogans of ‘Jai Amaravati’, the protesters are covering 10-15 km every day.

After passing through various parts of Guntur district, the foot march entered Prakasam district last week. Villagers along the route are joining the farmers to show their solidarity.

Leaders of the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi and Amaravati Joint Action Committee (JAC) claim that they are receiving huge support from farmers, women and other sections of society.

They demanded that the State government drop its plans for trifurcation of the state capital and retain Amaravati as the only capital.

The mega walkathon, which began from Thulluru, is scheduled to conclude at Tirupati on December 17.

The walkathon will continue for the next one month to reach Sri Venkateswara temple at Tirumala, passing through 70 major villages in Guntur, Prakasam, Nellore, and Chittoor districts.

Barring the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), all political parties are extending support to the ‘Mahapadyatra’. The YSRCP has, however, described the foot march as a ploy by TDP president and Leader of Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu.

Amaravati farmers had been protesting for 700 days against the state government’s plans for trifurcation of the State capital. With aMahapadyatra’ their protest entered a new phase.

After coming to power in 2019, the YSR Congress Party government led by YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to shift the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam and the judicial capital to Kurnool while retaining Amaravati as only the legislative capital.

The Amaravati farmers yatra, which was launched on November 1 from Tulluru in the Amaravati capital area, entered Prakasam district on Saturday evening. It entered Parchur Junction. On day 6 of the yatra, a distance of 14 km was covered. The Yatra will go on on Sunday. But, there will be a holiday on Monday to enable the participants to perform Kartika Somavaram rituals.

The yatra, which is titled Nayasthanam to Devasthanam, is gathering momentum. More and more people are joining the yatra. The yatra has got the support of all parties except the YSRCP. The yatra would go on for 45 days and would end on December 17 at Tirupati. Congress leader Tulasi Reddy and renegade YSRCP MP Raghuramakrishnam Raju have extended their support to the yatra. Meanwhile, the CPI has asked its cadres to ensure the success of the farmers’ yatra.

Meanwhile, the Chirala police have served a notice to the participants of the yatra. The notice said that while only 157 persons were allowed to participate in the yatra, as many as 2500 persons were present at the yatra and that it was a clear violation of the provisions of the conditional permission given. Also, the police served a notice for using mikes. TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh condemned the police action.

On the other hand, Minister Botsa Satyanarayana said that the yatra was a TDP affair. He said only TDP workers were participating in the yatra and said that proposal to have three capitals was intended to achieve the all round development of all the regions of the state. He said the yatra indeed was a TDP yatra and that it has no support of the people at large.

Happy Nest, once a most popular housing project in Amaravathi, that was promoted by the previous TDP government to boost real estate and construction activity in Amaravathi capital, has now become a big liability for AMRDA (Andhra Pradesh Metropolitan Development Authority).

The AMRDA now faces the risk of being declared as a ‘defaulter’, thanks to YSRCP government in AP, which ‘killed’ Amarvathi capital with its plans to create three capitals for AP.

Happy Nest project was conceived by the TDP government to construct 1,200 posh flats in high-rise buildings along the lines of high-rise buildings in Cyberabad limits in Hyderabad.

When the AP government opened online bookings to book flats, such was the huge response for this project was that within minutes all the 1,200 flats were booked. In fact, it was oversubscribed by several times as most of the non-resident Telugus from AP residing in US and other countries vied to book flats and the CRDA website crashed unable to handle the heavy traffic of visitors to the site.

However, with TDP losing power and YSRCP coming to power in May 2019, this project lost its sheen as the Jagan government decided to shift AP capital from Amaravathi to Vizag.

As per the original deadline, the Happy Nest project should be completed by December 2021 and flats should be handed over to beneficiaries.

Though only three months are left for the deadline, not even the construction works have been commenced let alone handing over flats. This is because none of the contractors are coming forward to undertake works for this project under the YSRCP regime. There is no response to tenders being called by AMRDA repeatedly.

Angered at this, beneficiaries have approached AP RERA to declare AMRDA as a defaulter for failing to deliver the project in time.

They are also planning to move AP High Court seeking directions to AP RERA to declare AMRDA as defaulters and direct it to pay compensation to beneficiaries.

The Government of India released a new map of the country after the cancellation of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir. This is because the number of states is now reduced to 28. The new map of India mentioned boundaries of each state and their Capital Cities. But in respect of Andhra Pradesh, no Capital City is mentioned or indicated. The Centre took this decision as the new government in Andhra has itself not officially recognised Amaravati. Moreover, many indications are given for shifting the Capital.

It may be recalled that CM Jaganmohan Reddy himself told Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah that his government would not require funds to build Amaravati. Moreover, the interaction of AP government officials with the Central government departments has come down drastically.

Analysts say that the immediate purpose of Jagan is achieved in the form of India map. But what about the future prospects of the state. How long can AP CM continue his silence and suspense on Capital? Even after six years of separate statehood, Andhra is still without clarity on its Capital city. CM Jagan should now realise how much he is hurting AP because of his vague and unclear policies. The communication gap between AP and Centre should be removed immediately. Otherwise, chaos will follow soon.