A central law to protect Amaravati

For Amaravati, the emerging capital city of Andhra Pradesh, the journey has been one of two steps forward during 2014–19 and one step back during Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s rule

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had envisioned Amaravati as a greenfield capital city and began giving shape to the idea in early 2014.

To rule out the possibility of any future attempt to shift the capital, the TDP-led government sought to move a Bill in Parliament to give Amaravati legal sanctity, leveraging its position as a constituent of the NDA.

According to a TDP MP, this effort has been part of a continuous process. The Bill was expected to be tabled during the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament, but that did not materialise.

The project moved at a reasonable pace until early 2019, when Mr. Jagan proposed the idea of three capital cities, effectively stalling Amaravati’s progress.

The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government put the brakes on the project in the name of decentralisation, triggering a prolonged legal battle that eventually ended in favour of farmers in March 2022.

The YSRCP government had challenged the Andhra Pradesh High Court verdict in the Supreme Court by filing a Special Leave Petition.

A few months after returning to power in June 2024, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led coalition government filed an affidavit in the High Court, committing itself to completing the ambitious project within three years. However, given the YSRCP’s track record of reversing several decisions taken by the previous TDP government during 2014-19, there is a lingering fear that if Mr. Jagan were to stage a political comeback in 2029, he might revive the plan to split the capital into three — developing Visakhapatnam and Kurnool as the executive and judicial capitals respectively, while leaving only the State Legislature in Amaravati.

It may be recalled that the YSRCP government had earlier challenged the allotment of land to certain individuals and companies in Amaravati, alleging “insider trading”.

Mr. Jagan continues to be critical of large-scale investments in Amaravati, arguing that such spending would be detrimental to the north coastal districts and the drought-prone Rayalaseema region.

The current coalition government, meanwhile, suspects that Mr. Jagan and his party are backing a section of farmers who are allegedly creating obstacles to the project.

This prompted Mr. Naidu and the A.P. government to push for a Bill in Parliament to grant Amaravati formal legal status as the capital.

The proposed legislation seeks to secure formal recognition from the Central government by amending the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 (APRA), under which Hyderabad was designated the common capital of both Telugu States — Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — for a period of 10 years.

The objective of the proposed law is to place Amaravati under the protection of a Central statute, thereby preventing successive State governments from tampering with capital-related decisions.

A senior advocate who represented farmers from the region in the High Court observed that the YSRCP’s “trifurcation decision” resulted in substantial financial loss to the public exchequer and was taken not on administrative grounds but for vindictive and mala fide reasons.

What delayed the tabling of the Bill in Parliament was reportedly a conundrum over whether Amaravati should be declared the capital from the date the APRA came into force or from the present date. However, this is seen as a hurdle that can eventually be overcome.

In this context, it is argued that the Central government is empowered to decide the capital of the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh, having exercised similar authority in prescribing a common capital under the APRA.

Amaravati was declared and notified as the capital of Andhra Pradesh by the Centre on December 31, 2014, a move subsequently followed by the Survey of India. The coalition government has therefore felt the need to amend Section 5(2) of the APRA to legally fortify Amaravati’s position as the State capital.

There is little doubt about the government’s resolve not to leave anything to chance. It is now only a matter of time before the necessary legal safeguards are put in place.