If he wins… Will Jagan shelve Project Amaravati?

Vijayawada: YSRCP president YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s Praja Sankalpa Yatra, which would enter Krishna district on April 7, has raised many eyebrows and people are keen to know what was his take on the construction of capital city Amravati. 

This aspect assumes importance since many farmers have given away 35,000 acres of their lands to the government for the construction of world-class capital city. The general apprehension among the people is that Jagan is not in favour of such a modern capital and if voted to power it could affect the interests of the farmers, who had given the land for the capital.   So far, Jaganmohan Reddy has been levelling allegations of corruption against Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and the government but did not make his mind clear on the construction of the capital city. 

The general feeling of those who gave away their land under the land pooling scheme is that their interests would be protected if the TDP comes to power in the next election. They say that if the YSRCP comes to power and decides to have an administrative capital city which does not require so much of land, all those who gave lands would be on roads. It is not even possible to return the land to the farmers, they say. 

It may be recalled that Jagan had visited some of these capital region areas earlier and expressed his opposition to the acquisition of such huge tracts of land. But it did not gel well with the people and farmers in large numbers came forward to give their lands for the capital.

In the last few years, the land prices in the two districts got appreciated heavily. While several noted infra companies acquired lands and some of them have started housing projects, some other infra groups entered agreements with local landowners by envisaging future developments related to Amaravati capital construction. 

The capital city area covers about 33 Assembly constituencies in the two districts of Krishna and Guntur.  A Sivarami Reddy, native of Mangalagiri town, said the capital related developments would come to a halt if Jagan comes to power.  Kommareddy Srinivasa Rao, who bought land at Nelapadu village in Amaravati, said the land prices would take a nose dive if the YSRCP comes to power. B Nagesh, native of Penumaka village, said the people were discussing the future linking with the fate of two parties. He said that their areas would get huge development, if Chandrababu Naidu comes to power.