HYDERABAD: Taking a cue from the Srikrishna committee which suggested several options for the Centre on bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the Sivaramakrishnan panel is learnt to have suggested several alternatives to the Union government on locating the new capital of AP instead of zeroing in on one particular place.
The Sivaramakrishnan committee appears to have submitted its report to the Union home department on Wednesday. However, there was no official confirmation on this.
According to sources, in its report, the panel is learnt to have recommended to the Centre to decentralise development in the 13 districts of AP instead of developing another capital city similar to Hyderabad, which is a classic example of concentrated development.
Instead of specifying a particular place to locate the new capital, the committee in its report is learnt to have discussed the pros and cons of setting up the capital at places like Visakhapatnam, on Vijayawada-Guntur stretch and other areas in Rayalaseema in its report.
It is believed that the committee opposed the State government’s plans to locate the capital in between Vijayawada and Guntur, saying that this would make the fertile lands around these cities turn into concrete jungles, leading to environmental and other hazards.
Sivaramakrishnan is learnt to have further felt that finding vast stretches of land is a major constraint in Vijayawada and Guntur.
Hence, the panel was against locating the capital right in the Vijayawada-Guntur stretch. Instead, it suggested to the government to locate the capital at a place nearer this stretch where degraded forest land is available.