For the last one year, the talk of shifting of executive capital of Andhra Pradesh from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam has been going on every now but has never happened.
In fact, it was in June 2020 that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government got the two controversial bills – one on repeal of Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) and another on formation of three capitals passed and got the approval from Governor Biswabhushan Harichandan.
However, the two acts, which were also incorporated in the state gazette, have not come in force, because more than 90 petitions challenging the two acts have been pending before the state high court.
There were arguments before the previous bench headed by former chief justice J K Maheshwari, but after new chief justice A K Goswami took over, the issue came back to square one and he started hearing the petition afresh.
In the meantime, the second wave of pandemic hit the state and the country and the hearing on three capitals formation has been stalled.
In the last one year, the Jagan government made quite a few attempts to shift at least the chief minister’s office to Visakhapatnam. Though there were reports that the works were nearing completion and Jagan may move to Vizag in May, it did not materialise.
Under these circumstances, a statement made by YSR Congess party general secretary and Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy on Wednesday that the executive capital would be shifted to Visakhapatnam soon kicked up a debate.
Sai Reddy said though the issue of three capitals was in the court, it did not stop the chief minister from operating from Visakhapatnam.
“There were several instances of chief ministers operating from different parts of the state. Even Chandrababu Naidu initially operated from Hyderabad, even after bifurcation,” he said.
At the same time, Sai Reddy said shifting of executive capital from Amaravati to Vizag was nothing to do with the cases pending in the high court.
“The executive capital will be shifted soon to Visakhapatnam. Please don’t ask the date, but it will be done,” he said.
It is not exactly known whether Sai Reddy made the statement only to keep the topic alive or whether he has got any specific information about the capital shift.
Let us wait and see how soon it will happen.
