Amaravati’s legal status to be clear soon, says Union MoS
Pemmasani Chandrasekhar said the Bill, which seeks to amend the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, was delayed due to certain technical issues.
The much-awaited bill on declaring Amaravati as the permanent capital of Andhra Pradesh will be passed either in the ongoing winter session or the next session of Parliament, Union minister Pemmasani Chandrasekhar said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Chandrasekhar said the Bill, which seeks to amend the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, declaring Amaravati as the only capital of Andhra Pradesh, was delayed due to certain technical issues.
“The current delay in introducing the bill in Parliament is due to some technical obstacles such as when Amaravati should legally be recognised as the capital—from 2014 or from 2024,” the minister said.
He added that chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was personally in touch with the Centre on the passage of the bill. “It is only a matter of time that Amaravati will be declared as the permanent capital city of Andhra Pradesh.”
The assurance came amid the ongoing campaign by farmers who gave away their lands for the capital city to demand a statutory status to Amaravati to end any kind of uncertainty.
“There is no mention of any specific city as the capital of Andhra Pradesh while passing the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014. So, even after the previous Naidu government in 2015 took up Amaravati as the capital city, it was not given any official status,” said K Anil Kumar, one of the farmers who handed over land to the government.
Since Amaravati had no legal status as the capital city, the previous YSR Congress Party government led by former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2019 abandoned it and proposed three capital cities— executive capital at Visakhapatnam, judicial capital at Kurnool, and legislative capital at Amaravati. This was challenged in court by farmers and landowners in Amaravati.
“The issue is presently in the Supreme Court. If the Central government enacts a legislation in Parliament declaring Amaravati as the only capital city, this will end uncertainty and the legal complications will be resolved in the Supreme Court,” Kumar said.
On November 22, Chandrasekhar told a delegation of farmers that the current government in Andhra Pradesh was working on establishing the legal status of Amaravati through a Bill passed in the Parliament.
He said the chief minister had discussed the matter with Union home minister Amit Shah and the draft bill was under the consideration of the law department.
A senior official familiar with the matter said the Union law ministry had raised queries over the draft bill proposed by the state government on Amaravati, seeking to give it the capital city status with retrospective effect from 2014.
“The Centre questioned how Amaravati could be notified as capital from 2014 when, under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Hyderabad was designated the joint capital for 10 years until 2024,” the official said, adding that the Centre asked the state government to resend the proposal with proper legal justification.
CM approves Lok Bhavan’s construction in Amaravati
The Andhra Pradesh state cabinet, chaired by chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, on Thursday approved the contract for the construction of Lok Bhavan in the Amaravati Government Complex in the capital city, state information and public relations minister K Parthasarathy said.
Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, Parthasarathy said that the proposed Lok Bhavan complex includes the governor’s Residence, durbar hall, governor’s office, two guest houses, and staff quarters. The total cost of the Lok Bhavan complex is around ₹212 crore.
