Amaravathi Remained A Hallucination


  • One year age for capital
    of AP
  • Holy soil and waters
    flooded away
  • Plots’ distribution
    incomplete
  • Money earned from online
    sale of bricks vanished
  • Yellow leaders’ robbery
    in the name of temporary secretariat
  • AP Government tries to
    get groundbreaking done for the third time



It has been two years
since TDP came to power. It has been a year since groundbreaking ceremony of
the intended international-standard capital. But not a bit of work has been
done. Not a wall has been built. Not a road has been laid. No building has a
permanent design. Exactly a year ago, AP Government celebrated the
groundbreaking ceremony of the capital with pomp and fair. PM Narendra Modi,
union cabinet ministers, and CM of neighbouring state and ministers from
Singapore attended the event at Uddandarayapalem of Tulluru mandal in Guntur
district.

What happened to the holy soil?

It has been a year since
the groundbreaking ceremony for AP’s capital happened, but not one step has
been taken ahead. With the slogan ‘our soil and our water’, the CM collected
holy soil from Tirupati and birthplaces of famous people and water from 33
rivers. PM Narendra Modi also brought with him, soil from the parliament at
Delhi and water from river Yamuna. But due to the Government’s negligence, the
soil and the water were taken by floods. The promises made by the PM and the CM
to the people of AP were washed away.

The centre gave only Rs.1500 crore

With the bifurcation of
united state of AP, the newly-formed AP state was left with no capital. The
centre made many promises to the state at the time of bifurcation. The centre
is supposed to help with the construction of Raj Bhavan, secretariat, high
court, legislative houses, ministers, officials, residential complexes and
infrastructural facilities. From the Rs.2500 crore given in three financial
years, setting aside the Rs.1000 crore given for Vijayawada and Guntur cities’
development, the amount given for capital construction was only Rs.1500 crore.
But the actual amount needed for the construction is Rs. 20,000 crore.

Is this Babu’s experience?

AP CM Chandrababu keeps
boasting about his long experience as CM for nine years and as the leader of
opposition for ten years. He stated that he would build a capital of
international standard. He promised to bring industrial corridors,
international level educational institutions and IT companies. He promised to
build the best capital in India with the help of Narendra Modi. After having
boasted about his foresight, ability to collect funds, leadership qualities,
responsible thoughts, international reputation and connections, he failed to
get funds from the centre in spite of the ruling party being an ally. Then he
started collecting bricks and money from people as contribution. He proclaimed
that people must sacrifice. He issued GOs saying students must contribute. The
Government is still to answer what happened to the money earned from sale of
bricks online.

Temporary secretariat with crores of rupees

The Government already
spent over Rs.800 crore for the construction of temporary secretariat at
Velagapudi. It paid contractors for the constructions like never in the
country. The buildings constructed were demolished again as Chandrababu did not
like them. Then their estimated expenditure was raised and ruling party leaders’
pockets were filled. Buildings in the 4th and the 5th
blocks of the secretariat were demolished and rebuilt this way. Some buildings
were depressed due to cheap quality of work.

Troubles at Velagapudi

The Government transferred
its employees before temporary secretariat’s construction was completed. They
are facing difficulties due to lack of proper infrastructure. As the building
is beside agricultural fields, they are facing the stinging insects. It is
saddening that even land phones have not been arranged in the office. Toilets
also are in bad state.

Where are our plots?

The Government snatched
the lands from farmers for the construction of Amaravathi. They were promised
plots by 2016 in the capital area. The Government also promised to build houses
for those poor farmers who did not have houses. But no space was shown in the
maps for this purpose. There were 6,426 families with no houses when the
announcement for the capital was made. But nobody has been sanctioned houses
till now. Distribution of plots is still incomplete.

Fake promises

Promises were made by PM
Modi and CM Chandrababu in the groundbreaking ceremony to solve problems in the
people of the capital area, to make all villages ‘smart’, giving them basic
infrastructure, to provide education and healthcare for free and to grant
pension for all the eligible people, but nothing has been done in this year.

Employment promise is gone

Youth of the capital
area were promised employment opportunities. 6,575 graduates in the area are
still jobless. According to GO 125, people in the capital villages should be
provided with free education, students should be given fees reimbursement and
training centres should be given discounts on behalf of the Government. Women
were promised training in handicrafts. But none of these have been implemented.

Rough time for labourers

Agricultural labourers
in the capital area have gone jobless. Though they were promised work through
employment guarantee scheme, only 15,471 have been given employment cards. As payment was not done
for months, the labourers stopped going to work. Pensions have been granted to
only 19,055 labourers from total 53,373 workers.

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