YSR Congress cautioned chief minister Chandrababu Naidu against concentrating everything in and around Amaravati and igniting resentment among people of other regions as had happened in case of Hyderabad in united AP. This statement comes in the wake of party senior leader MV Mysoora Reddy disowning Amaravati. Participating in a panel discussion few days ago, Mysoora said “capital is being built by them (Naidu and his men) to suit their convenience and we have nothing to do with it”.
This is a clear change in the undeclared policy of not talking negative about the capital city Amavarati. Now, the party started attacking the motives behind developing Amaravati into a world-class city, though not directly.
“We have seen the turmoil the people Andhra Pradesh had undergone as a result of the Hyderabad centric development. This should serve as an eye-opener and the government should take steps for a balanced regional development in all the 13 districts. It should give equal priority North Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema, which are already backward,” former minister and party general secretary Dharmana Prasada Rao said.
He alleged that chief minister Naidu was repeating the same mistake in case of Amaravati, by planning a multiple corridors in and around the capital.
“State government’s proposed nine sectors of development in capital region. This will generate a gravitational pull towards the capital city at the cost of other region which are already craving attention. It will again lead to dissent among these regions,” Dharmana said and added that no capital city in the world such as New York, Tokyo, Paris, Sydney, Cape Town or Damascus etc was built in such an extent of vast land.
“TDP is speaking of paperless administration. Then, where is the need for 33,500 acres of land, which the government has already acquired, and the thousands of acres the government proposes to acquire? The extent of capital city is not an indicator for development of good governance,” he criticized.
Stating that Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and other States had not followed Hyderabad model and pursued decentralized pattern of development, Dharmana said the TDP should not refuse to learn lessons from the history. ” New capital development has thrown up an opportunity to plan decentralized development. If TDP fails to take advantage of this opportunity for an all-region development, AP will certain to face resentment as disparities among region wound continue leading which is not a good sign for any new State,” he advised.