Andhra Pradesh should give up its three-capital strategy. Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy announced a rollback of the greenfield capital city, Amaravati, that his predecessor Chandrababu Naidu had launched in 2015, shortly after the state lost its capital, Hyderabad, to Telangana after bifurcation, just weeks after winning the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections.
Nara Chandrababu Naidu is an Indian politician who currently serves as the opposition leader in the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh. From 2014 to 2019, he served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He was the state’s first Chief Minister after it was separated.
Yeduguri Sandinti Jagan Mohan Reddy, usually known as Y. S. Jagan or just Jagan, is an Indian politician who has served as Andhra Pradesh’s 17th and a current chief minister since 2019. He is also the president and founder of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). He is the son of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. Between 2014 and 2019, he was the opposition leader in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly.
Instead, Reddy proposed that three capital cities be developed: a legislative headquarters in Amaravati, a bureaucracy center in Visakhapatnam, and the high court in Kurnool. Farmers who had contributed land for the capital as part of a pooling agreement with the government protested the move, which interrupted investment plans worth millions of dollars and including agencies like the World Bank. The Andhra Pradesh State Assembly enacted the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Repeal Bill, 2021, on Monday, to repeal previous legislation passed by the state legislature to help implement the three-capitals plan. The Reddy government has stated that a new bill will be introduced, but it has not indicated whether it will stick to the three-capital arrangement or return to Amaravati as the sole capital. This is an opportunity for the government to forsake its three-capital strategy and concentrate on Amaravati’s development.
To defend its three-capital strategy, the Reddy government has used chiefly two arguments. In acquiring land for the capital city and planning its development, the Naidu government broke laws and procedures. Only a decentralized governance model can solve the new state’s geographical imbalances. In the first situation, the government may undoubtedly investigate any contract flaws, correct them, and move forward. The noble goal of having a decentralized government does not necessitate three capitals, an idea that might waste resources and create a logistical nightmare. A compact, well-planned capital city with modern infrastructure, can aid the state’s various branches in sharing resources and maximizing efficiency. To prevent the dangers of over-centralization of government, prudent financial and human resource allocation, as well as decentralized planning with local community participation, are necessary.