Vizag has potential to be developed as No.1 city: Botcha Satyanarayana

Visakhapatnam: Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Botcha Satyanarayana pointed out that of the Rs 7,635 crore allotted for the development of the capital city in Amaravati, the TDP had only spent Rs 5,674 crore and the rest of the funds were misused.

Briefing the media here on Sunday, Botcha said Visakhapatnam has all the potential to be developed as a number one city. "It is the same reason why Visakhapatnam has been preferred for the development of the executive capital of the State," he opined.

He said it would take only 10 per cent of investment spent on Amaravati to develop Visakhapatnam into an executive capital. "Is TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu interested in developing drought-stricken regions of Coastal AP or not," he asked.

The Minister alleged that the TDP never took any measure to contribute to the development of Coastal Andhra during its regime.

However, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy intends to develop all the districts equally in the State which can be fulfilled through decentralised governance, Botcha reiterated.

Elaborating further, Botcha said Naidu has written a letter to the Governor to retain Amaravati as State capital. The YSRCP government sent two Bills to the Raj Bhavan.

One is on abolishing the AP Capital Region Development Authority to develop Amaravati as the capital city. The other is to form three capital cities for decentralised administration. "However, the TDP stalled the process with ulterior motives and wrote a letter to the Governor, appealing to him not to accept the Bills sent by the YSRCP government," the Minister told the reporters.

Further, the Minister said, "Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy is keen on decentralised administration which is welcomed by the people of North Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. It is being appreciated even by the people of Krishna and Guntur districts as Amaravati will be retained as the legislative capital."

Naidu, who grabbed lands from the poor in the name of land pooling for the capital, has been insisting on making Amaravati the sole capital of the State just to help his coterie operate a real estate business, the Minister added.