The villagers of the Amaravati capital villages have opposed the state government’s proposal to create a municipality with Amaravati as headquarters. The district collector conducted grama sabhas in Lingayapalem and Uddandarayunipalem villages on the first day on Monday.

At Lingayapalem, there 79 villagers who attended the public hearing in the grama sabha of whom 78 persons have opposed the proposal, while one person welcomed it. In Uddandarayunipalem village, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for Amaravati in 2016, the entire village opposed the move.

The officials have to complete the exercise in the next five days by holding grama sabhas in 22 villages. The exercise was taken up to create Amaravati Municipality with 19 villages of Thulluru mandal and three villages of Mangalagiri mandal.

Earlier, in 2021, the state government had proposed for creation of Amaravati Municipal Corporation with 22 villages, against the 29 villages which were part of the Amaravati capital city. The villagers wanted the government to create a municipal corporation with all the 29 villages, which were notified earlier.

However, the state government had merged some villages in the Tadepalli-Mangalagiri Municipal Corporation, which was created early in 2021. The state government had merged the two municipalities of Tadepalli and Managalagiri and created a new municipal corporation. This is the second municipal corporation in the CRDA limits after the Vijayawada and Guntur municipal corporations.

It is now to be seen how the villagers handle the government’s move and how the state government makes its next move.