The farmers of Amaravati villages took out a rally opposing the state government’s plan creating a new residential zone – R5 – to accommodate new housing plans. The farmers said that the new zone is aimed at disturbing the original Amaravati plan drawn by the previous government.

The TDP regime, which created the Amaravati capital region development authority, had created four residential zones in the master plan. The present government had kept the master plan aside in the name of decentralization of administration and had proposed three capitals.

Amaravati was made the legislative capital of the state, while Visakhapatnam was proposed as the executive capital and Kurnool as the legislative capital. The state government had proposed to shift the high court and the legal department to Kurnool as part of its plans.

The government also plans to shift the secretariat to Visakhapatnam and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had recently announced that he would start working from Visakhapatnam from July this year.

However, there are cases pending in the Supreme Court on the Amaravati issue. The state government had challenged the AP High Court’s order asking the government to develop Amaravati as capital in six months. The state government also challenged the high court’s observation that the state legislature has no powers to decide on the capital.

The farmers now allege that the state government was destroying the Amaravati plans which were to make it the only capital of the state. They said that they have given the lands to the government only on the promise of developing it as the only capital and not one of the three capitals.

The farmers conducted the padayatra connecting Venkatapalem, Mandadam, Krishnayapalem, Inavolu and Nidamarru villages. They would also hold a public meeting at Nidamarru opposing the plans of the present government including the new residential zone.