VIJAYAWADA/KURNOOL : At a time when his cabinet colleague Botcha Satyanarayana came up with a statement that created confusion about the continuation of Amaravati as the capital city, Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani) on Wednesday said that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had not uttered a single word about changing the capital, but it was the Opposition TDP which was making unnecessary ruckus over the issue.
“Jagan Mohan Reddy had not made any comment on shifting capital as well as stopping execution of Polavaram project,’’ he said at a press conference at the Interim Government Complex in Velagapudi. “Chandrababu Naidu (TDP chief) chanted Amaravati and Polavaram throughout his five-year tenure and finally lost the elections. Even after losing elections, he is still after Amaravati and Polavaram,’’ the minister said.
“Naidu had announced that Amaravati will be built on the lines of Singapore and Bangkok, but he forgot to provide basic infrastructure facilities to the people of the region. If Naidu does not stop his Amaravati and Polavaram rant, he will not get even a single seat in the next elections,’’ Nani said.Nani reminded that the Municipal Administration Minister only said that there were several irregularities and hindrances in capital city construction and the government was going ahead reviewing one after the other.
“Similarly, we never said that Polavaram will be halted. We only said that we will go for reverse tendering. This may cause a delay of only three to four months,” he said. Nani added that for them, not just Amaravati and Polavaram are priority, but the overall development of the 13 districts in the State is important”.
Speaking to the media in Kurnool, Botcha Satyanarayana stuck to his statement on the suitability of Amaravati as capital city. Reiterating that Amaravati was not suitable for capital city as construction cost would be astronomical due to soil strength and foundation problems, he said Amaravati and Kurnool have been affected by floods regularly with just 8 to 10 lakh cusecs of floodwater in Krishna river.He, however, said he is not making any statement about shifting of the capital city, but he was just talking about suitability of the area for the capital.
Botcha sticks to his guns
Botcha Satyanarayana stuck to his statement on the suitability of Amaravati as capital city. He reiterated that Amaravati was not suitable for capital city as construction cost would be astronomical due to soil strength and foundation problems