Former bureaucrat criticises successive Andhra Pradesh governments for flip-flop decisions on capital location

Former government official criticizes successive Andhra Pradesh governments for flip-flop decisions on capital location, urging adherence to legal recommendations.

The choice of location of capital has long-term implications for the people and flip-flop decisions by the successive governments have considerably hurt the public interest in Andhra Pradesh. Political parties should not be permitted to harm people’s interests, says E.A.S. Sarma, a former Secretary to the Government of India.

In a letter to the State Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad on Saturday, Mr. Sarma noted that unilateral decisions by the successive governments have harmed the interests of the State, and they would continue to do so till the provisions of the A.P. Reorganisation Act were complied with.

The TDP government during its previous stint, the YSRCP government, which followed it, and now the TDP-JSP-BJP Alliance government in the State, were all acting unilaterally ignoring the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee, which was appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to recommend the various alternatives for location of the capital within six months of the enactment of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014, which was enacted on March 1, 2014.

Under Section 5 of APRA, 2014, Hyderabad can no longer be deemed as ‘common capital’ for the two successor States, and, as on date, in the absence of a formal notification on location of the capital, Amaravati cannot be legally deemed to be the State’s capital. Any expenditure on Amaravati and any administrative, financial and statutory measures taken in the name of that city as the State capital would be prima facie ‘illegal’, unless the State government goes through the necessary legal process of obtaining approval from Parliament and getting Presidential assent, he says.

Mr. Sarma also noted in his letter to the Chief Secretary that the MHA-appointed Sivaramakrishnan Committee had recommended among other things to consider ‘least possible dislocation of people’, ‘preservation of local ecology and natural features including water bodies’, ‘vulnerability to floods’, ‘minimum cost of construction’ and so on.

The committee indicated the possible alternatives from which the Centre could decide in consultation with the State. Instead of considering the committee’s recommendations, the then TDP government(2014-19) had ignored them, and unilaterally selected Amaravati as the capital and undertook massive investments on it, without it being duly notified under the APRA, 2014.

The successor YSRCP government (2019-24) unilaterally abandoned Amaravati and decided to locate the administrative capital of Andhra Pradesh in Visakhapatnam, once again ignoring the committee’s recommendation regarding environmental concerns.