The YS Jagan Mohan Reddy regime is putting up a brave face on the three capitals' issue, knowing fully well that it is legally on a weak wicket. Following the Andhra Pradesh High Court's March 3 verdict, that the state Legislature lacked competence to make any legislation for shifting, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital, the state government is literally not in a position to either go forward or backward.
But still, the ruling dispensation is making noises that it will somehow or the other go ahead with its decentralisation plan and establish multiple capitals for the state. To avoid any further legal complications, though, the government is claiming it's not shifting the capital as such, but only decentralising the administration. Importantly, the ruling YSR Congress is seeking to make three capitals' a political issue and, in the first step, debate it in the Budget session of the Legislature beginning Monday, March 7.
The state government actually has only two options, implement the High Court verdict and develop Amaravati into the state capital city or prefer an appeal in the Supreme Court. The government, however, is indecisive over going to the apex court. On the other hand, carrying out development activities in Amaravati within the stipulated six-month period is an improbable task as the government lacks the wherewithal, including the staggering amount of money required.
The other probable option is to file a petition in the High Court itself and seek more time for complying with its orders. Either way, you have to knock on the doors of justice once again for some reprieve or face the music, a top bureaucrat observed. Thus, the Jagan regime is caught between the proverbial devil and the deep sea on the Amaravati issue.
"You will see what we will do and how we will do," is the only refrain of the government bigwigs, in the aftermath of the HC judgment. "We are committed to decentralisation and there is no change in our three capitals plan," state Municipal Administration Minister Botsa Satyanarayana averred.
Government advisor SRK Reddy, who is the Chief Minister's mouthpiece, also spoke in similar terms, adding that they were seeking legal counsel on the next step. There is a view among a section of officials that the government could not do much on the capital proposal, in the last three years since it assumed power. “We did nothing in three years and now, suddenly, we are asked to do everything in three months. What to say,” lamented a top official.
All development works initiated by the previous Chandrababu Naidu regime were completely stalled. The arterial roads developed between 2016 and 2019 are now invisible. The All India Services Officers' towers, the Legislators' Towers and the non-gazetted employees' housing towers are in a state of abandon after about 70-80% of work done.
The half-built bungalows of High Court judges and senior bureaucrats are left in shambles. The iconic state Secretariat building site has turned into a huge water body, with the foundation pits dug up. The previous government, in all, spent Rs 8,445 crore on Amaravati development, including Rs 5,674 crore on infrastructure works. The Union government granted Rs 1,500 crore out of this. Overall, Amaravati now presents a desolate look.
The Capital Region Development Authority prepared some plans to complete the works already undertaken but nothing has been done, mainly due to lack of money, highly-placed official sources said. The immediate urgency for the government now is to complete the trunk infrastructure development in the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) Layouts and hand over the developed returnable plots (residential and commercial) to more than 28,632 farmers who gave away 34,404 acres of their land for the capital city. This, according to the Chief Minister's claim, will cost Rs one lakh crore.
The High Court gave the government only three months' time to accomplish this task. According to CRDA data, a total number of 64,757 (returnable) plots have been allotted to the land owners under the LPS, of which only 41,664 have been registered to the owners so far. Registration of another 23,093 plots is still pending, the data showed, implying that ownership of land to that extent is not yet transferred to the CRDA.
The possible contempt of court action, in the event of failure to implement the High Court verdict, now hangs as a Damocles sword on the authorities' head, an official noted. In the event, though, it is a political call to be taken for a way out of this imbroglio.