Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting AP’s capital Amaravati later on Friday to relaunch capital construction activities, second time after a gap of over a decade. On October 22, 2015, he came to Uddandrayunipalem in Thullur mandal to lay the foundation stone of the capital Amaravati.
As against the expectations of everyone in the state, he only brought soil and water collected from various parts of the country to Amaravati and shook hands with them. Even after 11 years many provisions of the AP Reorganization Act have been confined to papers. Not once, PM Modi held a review on those issues.
During his earlier visit to Amaravati, he promised people that he would build a world-class capital, but that has not been implemented. Between 2015 and 2019, the center provided only Rs. 1500 crore for the construction of the capital. Will world-class construction be done with these funds? There was a debate at that time.
After the TDP quits from the NDA alliance in 2018, not a single rupee was provided by the Center for the capital city. The TDP has publicly expressed dissatisfaction several times over Narendra Modi’s failure to provide funds. At that time, the Union ministers attacked the TDP leaders, saying that they had given Rs. 1,500 crore only for the construction of buildings and that they had nothing to do with the rest of the works.
The Central government ignored the special status, which is a key element of the Reorganization Act. Although it was announced that a special package would be given in place of special status, the funds did not come to the state much. Although the state government said that at least Rs. 50,000 crore would be required mainly for the construction of the capital, the Center did not respond.
Even though the YSRCP government diluted Amaravati in the name of three capitals between 2019 and 2024, the Modi government had never tried to stop him from destruction of Amaravati. The Central government played a double game by saying that the capital issue was within the state’s jurisdiction.Now, the capital Amaravati got a new lease of life as the survival of the Narendra Modi-led government depends upon the crucial support provided by the TDP.
However, the NDA government at the center has only agreed to provide a loan of Rs. 15,000 crores from the World Bank and ADB for the construction of the capital. Presently, the state government is working to complete the construction of the capital Amaravati on a permanent basis with an estimate of Rs. 43,000 crores.
What kind of assurances will Prime Minister Modi give to the people of the state, adhering to the promise of a world-class capital given in the past, has become a hot topic at present. In response to the criticism that he gave a lot of soil and water in 2015, there is a debate among the people about what kind of assurances will be given for the welfare of the people and for the construction of Amaravati this time, and how the work will be done?
