TIRUPATI: Intellectuals from Rayalaseema on Saturday welcomed the State government’s decision to reintroduce a comprehensive Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill for setting up three capitals to ensure balanced growth of Rayalaseema, Coastal Andhra and Uttara Andhra regions.
The Rayalaseema Intellectuals Forum (RIF) organised a public meeting at Indira Maidan in the temple town to press for its demand for setting up a capital in Rayalaseema to promote development of the backward region. Students and women attended the meeting in large numbers. No leader from any political party participated in the meeting as it was an apolitical one.
RIF convenor M Purushotham Reddy underlined the need for decentralisation of government institutions to promote balanced regional growth.
“Considering its spiritual prominence, the endowments board should be set up in Tirupati. Similarly, the fisheries board should be set up in Godavari districts and the Mineral Development Corporation in Kadapa or Anantapur. The government should explore ways to develop Hindupur and Tirupati as IT hubs considering their proximity to information technology capitals Bangalore and Chennai,” he suggested.
Underlining the need for developing three capital cities in three regions, he said, “The construction of a single largest capital city for a small State will be a failure. A large capital is economically unviable as it absorbs all resources at the cost of other regions.”
‘Development of only one region a big mistake’
Rayalaseema Adhyayana Samithi (RAS) president Bhuman observed that Amaravati farmers’ demand for location of the Secretariat, Assembly and High Court and the entire capital in 34,000 acres spread over 29 villages amounts to disrespecting the aspirations of people of other regions.
The decision of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to develop three capitals is intended for inclusive development of Coastal Andhra, North Andhra and Rayalaseema regions. The completion of the Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme and Polavaram project will benefit Rayalaseema and twin Godavari districts, besides Visakhapatnam, he said.
Bhuman announced that people of Rayalaseema under the aegis of various intellectuals forums are planning to launch a relay hunger strike in Tirupati and undertake a padayatra similar to Amaravati farmers’ ‘Nyayasthanam to Devesthanam’ supporting the government’s decision to develop three capitals.
Rayalaseema Labour Union president Chandrasekhar Reddy opined that centralisation of development in one region will do irrevocable damage to other regions. With its mega plan to develop capital Amaravati at the expense of other regions in the State, the previous TDP regime had committed a big mistake. “To correct the mistake, Jagan has came up with the plan to develop three capitals.
Further development of legislative capital in Amaravati is not needed considering the fact that both Guntur and Vijayawada are major cities in the State. To respect sentiments of people of Amaravati, the CM has decided to run the Legislative Assembly from there as part of the three-capital plan,” he observed.
The meeting which commenced at 10 am, concluded by noon as stipulated by police while giving permission for it. However, hundreds of people who attended the meeting, ignored Covid-19 Appropriate Behaviour. Majority of them did not wear face mask and no social distance was maintained at the venue.