HYDERABAD: Bringing down the curtains on the issue of where exactly the new capital of Andhra Pradesh is coming up, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is learnt to have told his ministerial colleagues on Monday that his first priority to locate the capital is Mangalagiri between Vijayawada and Guntur and his second choice would be Nuzvid.
The Chief Minister is likely to make a formal statement in the Assembly on Tuesday with regard to this decision. Much against the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee, Naidu is understood to have decided to stick to his guns on setting up the new capital either on the Vijayawada-Guntur stretch or nearer to it.
“I have decided to locate the capital at Mangalagiri. Though there are no sufficient government lands at Mangalagiri, if local farmers come forward to give their lands to the government for setting up the capital, we will locate the capital at that place. If they don’t come forward, then we will set up the capital at Nuzvid as there are government lands available there,” Naidu is learnt to have told his colleagues, during the marathon Cabinet meeting at the Lake View Guesthouse here. According to sources, during the five-hour meeting, Naidu discussed ways and means of acquiring lands from farmers at Mangalagiri. Interestingly, during the meeting itself, the Chief Minister reportedly constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu to formulate an action plan for acquiring lands for the capital city.
Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana, who is heading a nine-member advisory committee on how to design the capital, is on the panel which will also have MLAs from Guntur and Krishna districts. Naidu is said to have asked his colleagues to ignore the Sivaramakrishnan panel report. He is also said to have promised his Rayalaseema colleagues that the region would be developed industrially.