We are against shifting of administrative capital to Visakhapatnam : Amaravati Parirakshna Samiti

The Amaravati Parirakshna Samiti (APS) has requested people to oppose the Andhra Pradesh government's proposal of having three capitals which includes shifting of administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.

Karthik, Convenor, Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the APS on Thursday said: "APS is against shifting of the administrative capital from the seat of Amaravati to Visakhapatnam and people should protest against this inappropriate' decision".

APS orgsed a meeting at Dharna Chow at Alankar theatre here on Thursday in which leaders of various political parties participated. Leaders of TDP, Congress, BJP, JSP, CPI attended the meeting and extended their solidarity.

"We are requesting all the people of Andhra Pradesh to come out and protest against the inappropriate decision what the GN Rao committee has submitted to our cabinet. We are against shifting of the administrative capital from the seat of Amaravati to Visakhapatnam the latter is a developed city where a lot of employment opportunities are already there," said Karthik.

"There are so many national institutes and IT Parks in Visakhapatnam. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh has been telling us that there are three capitals in South Africa but we don't want South Africa model in the state. People here want a single capital where the seat of government is there and all of them are together," he added.

He further said that the Jagan Reddy headed government is intimidating the farmers in the 29 villages located capital region and trying to oppress their peaceful agitation" he lashed out.

"The government created mosity among people in the three regions in the state in the name of three capital cities concept. The government is trying to oppress the peaceful protests arbitrarily and warned that it would pay price in the future. Jagan Mohan reddy should know the sentiments and apprehension of people living capital region. We appealed to ensure that the capital city would not be shifted from Amaravati," he added.

The GN Rao committee constituted by the state government has recommended that the Andhra Pradesh government should have decentralised development by having three capital cities for the legislature, executive and judiciary and put the available resources to the best use taking into consideration concerns on environment and for balanced regional growth

( With inputs from ANI )