The YSR Congress party government in Andhra Pradesh led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy is gradually moving towards shifting of the administrative capital of the state from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
The report submitted by US-based consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to the chief minister on Friday was the last nail in the coffin of Amaravati, the dream capital of Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
As Sakshi paper has mentioned in its page-1 story, Amaravati will remain a failed experiment and the BCG report clearly said it is not fit to be a capital. While Andhra Jyothy quoted BCG as saying Amaravati is a waste city, Eenadu quoted it as saying that it is impossible to construct the capital at Amaravati.
Though the BCG has suggested three capital cities with two options, which is the banner headline in Sakshi, the state government might prefer the second option by keeping all the heads of departments, secretariat, Governor’s residence and chief minister’s bungalow at Visakhapatnam, while restricting Amaravati to the assembly and Kurnool to high court and other judicial offices.
So, as Eenadu said in its banner story, Visakhapatnam is going to be the ultimate capital of Andhra Pradesh, since it will also have emergency assembly sessions and a high court bench. Though on record, Amaravati and Kurnool also considered to be the capitals, it is Visakhapatnam that will be the seat of power.
Naturally, Naidu has cried foul over this “three-card poker” game by the YSRC government. Eenadu carried his statement in which he wondered which city should be called the real capital city.
Jagan gave an answer through Naidu’s statement at the launch of pilot project of revised YSR Arogya Sri programme at Eluru that he wants all the regions to prosper. His thinking was reflected in the Boston Committee report submitted in the evening.
The tense atmosphere at Mandadam village of Amaravati, where the agitating women clashed with the police and were injured in the process, was prominently highlighted in Andhra Jyothy and Eenadu. Sakshi carried a small bit stating that there was a mild tension at Mandadam.
Similarly, the CBI court’s directions to Jagan to personally appear in the court on January 10, was also made it to headlines in the rival papers, but not in Sakshi.
The war clouds in West Asia following the killing of Iran’s military chief in an drone strike by the US was yet another important news that figured in all the three major Telugu dailies.
