Andhra capital row: HC tells Jagan govt to develop Amaravati as per master plan

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday, March 3, ordered that the Amaravati Master Plan be implemented and all development activities be continued in the region, in a blow to the YSRCP government's plans to have three capitals. However, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has been claiming that it would not give up on its three capitals idea.

A three-member division bench of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, also ordered that the government honour the agreement signed with farmers, who parted with their lands for the development of the capital city Amaravati, and take up development activities.

The bench ordered that the government submit an affidavit in six months on the progress of the development works in Amaravati.

The division bench, also comprising justices M Satyanarayana Murthy and DVSS Somayajulu, delivered the judgment on a batch of petitions filed by the farmers opposing the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government's plan to create three new capitals for the state. In the original petitions, the farmers also opposed the scrapping of the Capital Region Development Authority Act and the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act.

The state government subsequently repealed the two controversial laws but said it would bring them back in a new form. Speaking in the Assembly when the Bills were repealed, Jagan said that the three-capital idea was floated with the idea of uniform development in mind. “Since then, many misconceptions have been created around it, along with many legal hurdles. It is in these circumstances that we are having to make this announcement. As soon as the capital decentralisation Bills were passed, if the trifurcation process had begun, we would have been able to see the positive results by now,” he said. 

The High Court on Thursday, March 3, said it would continue hearing into the various other related petitions in the matter. The Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi leaders welcomed the High Court judgment and said it was a victory of people and farmers. (PTI)