Andhra Pradesh govt to withdraw three-capital Bill

Andhra Pradesh government on Monday announced that it is withdrawing the controversial AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, and the AP Capital Region Development Authority (Repeal) Bill, 2020, which entailed chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's plan to have three capitals for Andhra Pradesh, news agency PTI reported citing sources

Advocate General informed the same to Andhra Pradesh High Court, which is hearing a case challenging the Bill. He said the Chief Minister would make a statement on this in the state Assembly.

Post the decision announcement, CM Reddy said, "Govt is going to take back the Bill which was introduced earlier. We will introduce a new Bill with no errors."

The High Court division bench headed by Chief Justice P K Mishra asked the AG to file a detailed affidavit and adjourned the hearing till 2.30 PM.The state Cabinet conducted an emergency meeting and cleared the Repeal Bill to be introduced in the Legislature, government sources said, according to PTI.

The decision on the matter comes in the wake of farmers' opposition to the government move as the ryots who had parted with their fertile agricultural lands for the development of the state's new capital city, had been up in arms against the ruling YSRC' s move.

Incidentally, Reddy had in June met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and sought special category status to the state, besides nod for the three state bills among others. The government had earlier hinted AP could have three capitals-- Executive Capital in Visakhapatnam, Legislative Capital in Amaravati and Judiciary Capital in Kurnool.

Earlier this year, Andhra governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan had cleared the legislative hurdle for three-capital Bills. The state law department had promptly issued gazette notifications giving effect to the new acts but the government will have to clear legal hurdles before it could finally make its three capitals plan a reality. The issue was pending before the AP High Court.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy government brought in the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, to give shape to its plan of having three capitals for the state, with the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, Legislative capital in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool.

It also provides for dividing the state into various zones and establishing zonal planning and development boards.

The village and (municipal) ward secretariats system that the government brought in in October last year now gets statutory backing as it has been made part of the new legislation.

The other legislation is intended to repeal the AP Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014.

The CRDA Act was enacted on December 22, 2014 for the development of the state capital post-bifurcation with a specific area demarcated as the capital region.

Now that the YSR Congress government decided to have three capitals for the state, the CRDA Act is being repealed.

The government now intends to constitute a new Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Area under the provisions of AP Metropolitan Region and Urban Development Authorities Act, 2016.

With inputs from PTI