Andhra Pradesh withdraws controversial three-capital law

In a major decision, Andhra Pradesh government withdrew the “Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill 2020” in the State Assembly. The bill was intended to make three capitals for the state.

However, CM Jagan Mohan Reddy said in the assembly that the government would come up with a “complete, comprehensive and better” bill to take forward his “decentralised development” plan.

“In the last one-and-a-half to two years since we came up with the idea of decentralised development, it has been distorted, twisted in many ways, misgivings were created, legal tangle was created. In the last two years, a false propaganda was carried out by raising an argument that it (three capitals) will cause injustice to some section,” Jagan alleged.

After coming to power in 2019, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) had reversed the decision of the earlier Naidu government to develop Amaravati as the only state capital. Jagan said the decision for trifurcation of state capital was taken to ensure decentralization and do justice to all three regions of the state — Executive Capital in Visakhapatnam, Legislative Capital in Amaravati and Judiciary Capital in Kurnool.