TNI Bureau: Visakhapatnam will soon be the state capital of Andhra Pradesh, announced Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy while addressing representatives of various companies at a curtain raiser event in New Delhi today.
While inviting the industrialists to Visakhapatnam for the global investors’ summit scheduled to be held on March 3 and 4, Reddy said, “Here I am to invite you to Visakhapatnam, which is going to be our capital, in the days to come. I myself would also be shifting over to Visakhapatnam in the months to come as well.”
This is the first time that the Andhra Pradesh CM made a categorical statement about shifting the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam from Amaravati. Currently, he is running the government from Amaravati.
On December 17, 2019, the Chief Minister had announced in the state Assembly that three state capitals- Visakhapatnam as administrative capital, Kurnool as judicial capital and Amaravati as legislative capital.
The government’s announcement triggered massive protests especially by the farmers. They also organised a padyatra from Amaravti to Tirupati in 2021. After the matter reached the Andhra Pradesh High Court, it directed the state government on March 3, 2022 to develop Amaravati as the state capital in six months.
Later, the state government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. However, the apex court stayed the High Court order in November last year saying that it cannot act like a town planner or an engineer. The three-capital decision was already dropped by the Jagan Government.