Visakhapatnam to be the new capital of Andhra Pradesh: AP Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy

Andhra Pradesh Capital: In a preparatory meeting for the Global Investors Summit which is to be held in March, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the state’s capital will be shifted from Amravati to Visakhapatnam, and added that his office will be shifted to the port city soon.

"Here I am to invite you to Visakhapatnam which is going to be our capital in the days to come. I myself would also be shifting over to Visakhapatnam in the months to come as well," Reddy told PTI.

The N Chandrababu Naidu-led government in 2015 acquired over 33,000 acres of land from farmers to develop Amaravati as the capital of the state.

After Jagan Mohan Reddy took over in 2019, the state government wanted to have three capitals-Visakhapatnam-Executive Capital, Amaravati-Legislative capital and Kurnool-Judicial capital and passed an appropriate legislation in this regard.

The Jagan Mohan Reddy government passed a Bill in the Assembly in November last year, repealing the controversial AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020, which was intended to establish three capitals for the state.

Without mentioning any timeframe, AP CM said in the Assembly that his government would come out with a "comprehensive, complete and better" Bill after plugging loopholes in the previous version.

In March 2022, the Andhra Pradesh High Court ruled against the three capitals and directed the government to develop Amaravati as the state capital as envisaged.

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In its verdict on March 3, last year, the Court also said that the state Legislature lacked competence to make any legislation for shifting, bifurcating or trifurcating the capital.

The state government filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the High Court Order.

The High Court also set timelines for the development of Amaravati.

Several ministers have been categorically saying that the government would come up with a new Bill on the three capitals issue, the ongoing litigation in the Supreme Court notwithstanding.

(With PTI inputs)

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