The Andhra Pradesh government on Monday withdrew a Bill to set up three capitals in the state, The New Indian Express reported.
The Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, had sought to form an executive capital in Visakhapatnam, a legislative capital in Amaravati and a judicial capital in Kurnool.
Andhra Pradesh’s Advocate General Subrahmanyam Sriram told the court that Amaravati will remain the state’s only capital, Bar and Bench reported.
The Andhra Pradesh chief minister is likely to announce the decision in the state Assembly later on Monday.
“We believed that [the] decentralisation of capital is much needed in Andhra Pradesh...” Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy said in the state legislative assembly, according to ANI. “[The state] government is going to take back the Bill which was introduced earlier. We will introduce a new Bill with no errors.”
The three-capital plan has been opposed by farmers in Amaravati, who gave over 30,000 acres of land for the new capital as the Andhra Pradesh government needed new headquarters post bifurcation in 2014. The old capital, Hyderabad, was given over to the newly-formed Telangana.
The farmers said they felt betrayed after the Andhra Pradesh chief minister announced that the state would have three capitals. They were promised that the value of their land would be increased after it was converted into urban real estate. But with the three-capital plan, the farmers believe they were left shortchanged.
Over 55 public interest litigation petitions had been filed against the legislation. The Andhra Pradesh High Court had been hearing the matter.
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