Andhra High Court posts Decentralisation of Capital Bill to August 6, asks State government to file a counter affidavit

Nelapadu (Amaravati): The Division Bench of Andhra Pradesh High Court comprising Chief Justice Jitendra Kumar Maheswari and Justice B Krishna Mohan directed the State government to file a counter affidavit by August 6 after hearing the appeal of former MLA and TDP leader Tenali Sravan Kumar. The full bench of the high court would hear the public interest litigation on August, the chief justice stated.

Sravan Kumar urged the high court to cancel the reports of GN Rao Committee and the High Power Committee basing on which three capitals were proposed by the State government.

During the hearing on Thursday, the Division Bench directed the government to submit a counter-affidavit on the objections raised in the petitioner's Public Interest Litigation (PIL).

Speaking to The Hans India, High Court advocate Karumanchi Indraneel Babu, on behalf of Sravan Kumar, explained that the government was not supposed to take the GN Rao's committee report into consideration. He explained that the government in its GO RT 585 obligated duty to the GN Rao to review the developmental plans initiated so far. It was asked to suggest a comprehensive plan for the development of the state including the Capital city. The government constituted a five-member GN Rao committee with experts in architecture and planning. But, the architecture and planning experts gave an expert opinion on the State's economy and the administration and suggested for trifurcation of the capital city, Indraneel explained. The High Power Committee which was supposed to scrap GN Rao's committee report, carried it forward, he added.

Even then, the government is contradicting itself by shifting the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam in the name of decentralised development. If the administrative capital would be shifted to Visakhapatnam, then the entire wealth concentration will be in that city only. By now, Visakhapatnam is the richest city in the State and one among the top ten cities in the country. In these circumstances, the Visakhapatnam would become a honey pot, if the executive capital is shifted there, he added. Hence, that would not be an ideal step for the decentralised development of the state.

He also said that there was no sanctity to the GN Rao committee, which submitted the statement of the Chief Minister on the three capitals. "Just a couple of days before the committee submitted the report Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced the three capitals in the Assembly. That means, the committee did not work independently, but reported the political decisions of the YSRCP government," he added.