Last year, the Narendra Modi government submitted an affidavit in Andhra Pradesh high court stating that it has no role in the location or relocation of the state capital. It also acknowledged in the Parliament about the Jagan Mohan Reddy’s attempt to form three capital cities for the state.
But now it appears, the Central government is still considering Amaravati as the state capital and has made budgetary allocations for creation of infrastructure in the capital city.
Though it has been more than a month since Union finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman presented the annual budget in Parliament, the budgetary allocations made for the Union urban development ministry surfaced in a section of media on Wednesday.
The ministry has made various budgetary provisions for the construction of the new secretariat complex and the housing for state government employees in the “new capital city” of Amaravati.
The Centre has estimated that it would require Rs 1,214 crore for the construction of the state secretariat complex and another Rs 1,126 crore for the construction of residential housing complex for the state government employees.
It was estimated that an amount of Rs 6.69 crore would be required for land acquisition for the secretariat complex and the Centre has allocated Rs 4.48 crore for the same in the last two years.
Similarly, it has estimated that an amount of Rs 21 crore was required for the land acquisition for employees’ housing; of which the Centre had spent Rs 18.3 crore till date.
It has estimated that Rs 200 crore would be required for the construction of staff quarters for 300 Accountant General office employees.
One wonders whether mere allocation of funds in the budget without any releases would mean Amaravati is the capital city.
It would be interesting to see what the Centre would do, if the Jagan government declares Visakhapatnam as the executive capital in the coming budget session.
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