The legal battle being waged by the farmers of Amaravati opposing shifting of the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam took an interesting turn on Tuesday with the state secretariat employees strongly opposing the contention of the farmers.
Andhra Pradesh Secretariat Employees’ Association filed an impleading petition in the state high court stating that the employees were not opposed to the shifting of executive capital to Visakhapatnam.
“It doesn’t require thousands of crores of rupees to shift the capital. It requires only Rs 70 crore,” association president Venkattram Reddy said in the petition.
He said that the farmers of Amaravati cannot decide the capital of the state.
“They might have given their lands for the capital, but it is not their personal issue. It is an issue concerning the people of entire Andhra Pradesh. It is for the government to decide where to locate or relocate the capital city,” Reddy said.
He also declared as absolutely false the contention of the farmers that 70 per cent of the works were completed in Amaravati.
He alleged that the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi had filed the Public Interest Litigation petition only to protect the political and real estate interests of a few people.
Reddy also defended allotment of Amaravati lands for poor people towards housing sites.
“In the previous Telugu Desam Party regime, the government had made 114 land allocations, but these people had never opposed it. Why are they opposing the allocation of lands to the poor people?” he asked.
