The Andhra Pradesh High Court’s verdict that Amaravati is to remain the sole capital of Andhra Pradesh, came as rain in a severe drought to the farmers of Amaravati, who had been protesting for more than 800 days after CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced that the state would be having 3 Capitals. The AP HC also ordered the state government to start developing Amaravati as the capital of AP, and to even hand over the layouts of the Capital, and the estimated budget for it.
The HC even directed the AP government to complete developing Amaravati in 6 months, to hand over the plots of the farmers to them immediately, and to also resume the halted development works in Amaravati instantly. CM Jagan did order the concerned departments to draw the layout and submit it to the HC, but he doesn’t seem to have asked the finance minister to consider Amaravati’s development while making the budget for 2022-23, as the finance minister made no allocation to Amaravati.
This came as a major surprise to everyone, given that everyone thought that Jagan would start developing Amaravati with immediate effect, as no one can go past the judiciary. It looks like the CM is not really concerned about Amaravati, and sources are even suggesting that the CM is planning to shift to Visakhapatnam very soon and begin operating from there. It is being said that there are high chances that Jagan might even declare Vizag as the capital of AP in case he comes back to power in 2024. Given Jagan’s reckless behaviour towards the HC’s orders, it is to be seen what will happen here on, and how the HC will react.