Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri disclosing Vizag as the capital of Andhra Pradesh in Lok Sabha on July 26 has brought mixed reactions in the state.
The ruling party leaders are delighted with the centre’s response on the capital issue, while the opposition leaders fumed over the latest stand of the Modi government.
In this context, the Central Government has given a fresh explanation on the issue of AP capital. The Centre said that they do not intend to say that Visakhapatnam is the capital of AP. “Visakhapatnam is not the capital of AP. It is the only city in the state and has taken Visakhapatnam as an example in terms of petro taxes,” the Center said.
The Center also explained that the cities of Ambala and Ludhiana were not capitals of their respective states. The centre clarified the problem was due to a title error. The error in the heading is now being corrected. The Govt said it had also given the information to the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
In a clarification to an RTI query recently, too, the BJP government stated that the issue of the capital city for AP is still in the court. However, the latest developments mean the Centre has admitted, either willfully or inadvertently, that Vizag is the capital of AP.