Venkatesh predicts 4 capitals

Kurnool: BJP Rajya Sabha member T G Venkatesh made some sensational remarks on capital Amaravati. He said that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy told the BJP leadership that Amaravati might not be made the capital of Andhra Pradesh. Jagan intended to decentralise the administration, the MP said.

He addressed the media at his residence on Sunday evening and said that the State government is planning to form four planning boards in four regions - in Rayalaseema - comprising Kurnool-Anantapur and Chittoor, Ongole-Guntur-Nellore region, Krishna-Godavari region, and Srikakulam-Vizag-Vizianagaram region, to give prominence to each region, he said.

The MP also said that the planning board offices would also be called as regional Secretariat offices, or capital cities. "Like four seasons, we can have four capitals in the State," stated TG Venkatesh. "Whatever Jagan plans on doing, it is evident that the centralisation of Amaravati would be disturbed," he alleged.

Speaking about the construction of the Assembly, he said that it will cost around Rs 20 crore and that all the regions have good accommodation facilities for the MLAs to stay. He then added that due to technology, there is no need for a specific place to be designated as a centre, and work could be done from anyplace. "I have four offices, one each in Delhi, Hyderabad, Madras and Kurnool. Wherever I go it becomes the administrative wing I operate from," he said.

With regard to the matter of centralising Amaravati, he said that by injecting lakhs of crores of rupees into Amaravati, the other regions would be left behind in development.

Even Rayalaseema region would demand to be bifurcated from Andhra Pradesh. "The activity of distributing the capitals to be taken up by Jagan would be appreciated by the people of all the regions," he added.