Jana Sena Party (JSP) president Pawan Kalyan has demanded that the capital city of Andhra Pradesh be built in Amaravati and nowhere else, as shifting the capital whenever the government changes will scare investors away and results in massive unemployment. Such a move will create an existential crisis, he has warned. Addressing farmers from Amaravati, who met him at the JSP office in Hyderabad on Saturday, Mr. Kalyan said it was a problem faced by not only the families of 28,000 farmers who gave their lands for construction of the capital city but also the five crore people of the State.
He insisted that the present government could take necessary remedial measures if it believed that large-scale irregularities took place during the TDP regime, but relocating the capital city would not be a sensible thing to do. Whether the selection of Vijayawada-Guntur region as the place for developing the capital city was good or bad, everyone should abide by the government’s decision after a Bill was passed in the Legislative Assembly, he observed.
Ministers’ comments
The JSP chief said hasty comments thereof by Ministers and other people’s representatives would trigger panic, which would have a negative impact on the entire country. He wondered what would happen to the money that had so far been pumped into various projects in Amaravati if the capital city was indeed shifted. Mr. Kalyan promised to visit the capital region on August 30 and 31 to see for himself the progress claimed to be achieved in the last five years, and let the people know about the same. The farmers told him that the development of Amaravati had come to a grinding halt after the YSR Congress Party came to power and they were concerned with the hints being sent by the government that it was not interested in taking the capital city project forward.