Amaravati, Sep 16 Leaders of Amaravati farmers, who continued their Maha Padyatra on the fifth day on Friday, have flayed Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy for once again raising the issue of three state capitals.
The participants in the foot march condemned the Chief Minister's statement made in the Assembly on Thursday in which he attributed motives to the Maha Padyatra.
Farmers' Joint Action Committee (JAC) leader P. Sudhakar alleged that the statement amounted to creating regional divide among people and provoking them.
After the night halt, the farmers resumed Maha Padyatra from Kolluru in Bapatla district. Besides farmers from 29 villages of Amaravati region, women and leaders of various political parties are participating in the long march.
Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday made a statement in the Assembly defending the three- capitals formula. He said the government would go ahead with the decentralization of administration.
He stated that building the capital city Amaravati would be like a dream-chasing as this would cost Rs 30 lakh crore and take at least 100 years.
He was replying to a short discussion in the state Legislative Assembly on Decentralisation-Administrative Reforms.
The discussion assumed significance in view of the second Maha Padyatra launched by farmers and other locals of 29 villages of Amaravati region demanding implementation of the High Court for development of Amaravati.
Jagan Mohan Reddy dismissed the long foot march as a drama and said it was aimed at fomenting regional hatred by provoking people of other regions.
"Why is the yatra from Amaravati going to North Andhra? To worship the Gods there Ato develop Amaravati? Will people of North Andhra remain silent when the yatra passes through their region? Don't they have any sentiments?" he asked.
He alleged that those involved in irregularities in land transactions in Amaravati and those who want to protect their lands and other interests were behind the protest for the last 1,000 days.
On the demand for development of Amaravati as the only capital, he remarked that the state was not restricted to just 8-sq km radius or 50,000-acre land parcel.
Claiming that he is not against this region (south coastal Andhra), Jagan said he wants to develop it at par with other regions and this was the reason the government decided to Amaravati make one of the three capitals.
As per the three-capital formula mooted by the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government Visakhapatnam in north coastal Andhra will be developed as administrative capital, Kurnool in Rayalaseema region as judicial capital and Amaravati in south coastal Andhra as legislative capital.
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