Amaravati capital burlesque

A capital city for a new state is a very important aspect of its history. It cannot be decided on the whims and fancies of one individual or an oligarchy of government functionaries, especially in a democracy. It needs a general consensus of the people of the state. It is not simply the centrality of the location, or some historical artifice. It needs to address the political, regional ethos of all provinces of the state and there needs to be a common consensus.

If the capital is to be created anew on the bifurcation of earlier state, these issues become more pronounced. There needs to be a cautious and conciliatory approach to it. If one decides it unilaterally with a despotic bias, it is bound to create friction. It can snowball in to a politically destabilizing conundrum in future. A statesman with a historical perspective, who is interested in peace, progress and stability of his state, will not like the state to come to that situation.

Regrettably, the designated Andhra capital ‘Amaravati’ burlesque is portending such an eventuality. Both North coastal and Rayalaseema districts are unhappy even before the capital is coming into existence. In Rayalaseema and Nellore segment, the disaffection is more acute. Even the selection of the site and its appurtenant issues near Vijayawada are also creating a great deal of controversy.

Even if other regions are made to agree for the capital in Vijayawada region, the present site of the core capital in Tulluru and adjoining villages is not seen as the right choice, because of agro-climatic and other environmental reasons of the area. It is felt that the capital can be built in the denotified degraded forest areas in the same zone a few miles away, avoiding environmental and ecological problems and also many other glitches in the construction of the capital.

It is also being felt that trying to build a ‘world-class’ capital with huge cost disproportionate to the needs and resources of the state, at one go does not support the ground reality. The state government cannot afford the project. The PPP mode with foreign countries funding the entire project is another unwarranted economic adventure. It can become a mill stone around the neck of the state in future.

The pooling of the land for the project, without compensation to the land owners and asking them to wait till the city paraphernalia comes into existence to make more money in an indefinite future, is like losing one bird in the hand for two birds in the bush for them. As if it is not enough, the venture is turning out into an environmentally challenged project, violating all the important 2006 environmental stipulations of GOI. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has identified that “Amaravati, the proposed capital of Andhra Pradesh, will face eight major environmental challenges that may affect the local atmosphere and lead to adverse climatic events in the region” (TOI). It is actually escalating into a tiff between the executive and the judiciary of the country on this front, as both the state and the central governments are not taking these stipulations seriously.

It is said that in the name of capital so far, the AP government has spent about Rs 200 crore and is now planning to spend Rs 300-400 crore for the inauguration of the proposed capital. If this Rs 600 crore is spent judiciously, all the required government buildings can be built without much ado, in the government land available in the same zone or in any other suitable place like in the vicinity of Vizag or Dhonakonda. And the Rs 1500 –2000 crore Central assistance can be used for creating necessary infrastructure for the capital, to create a spring board for launching the development of a mega city in the vicinity.

Creating a world class-city for the sake of world-class investments is an incongruity and a foolhardy venture. For any city to be called world-class, if it really can be created in AndhraPradesh, it will not be before 50 years. Meanwhile, how the market forces behave and how the demand and supply of FDI and the contours of international business in the world and in India will change, nobody knows. We are in a Parliamentary democracy. Governments change every 5 years. A state government in India undertaking such projects spanning their completion over decades like in Singapore, China, and Korea etc. is a highly improbable expectation.

If still we are enamored of ‘world class’ mania, we can undertake this experiment in government lands in the same zone or near any other city in the state with government funds. Not definitely in the terrain like like ‘Jareebu’ lands or the delta ayacut lands, which are more than 100 years old and are the natural endowments and heritage of the state.

And they are also prone to floods and other ecological vagaries as opined by UNDP. We may create ‘Burj Khaleefa’ in a desert if we have money and technology. But we cannot create lands like Jareebu and delta ayacut everywhere and anywhere. After all, the government is the trustee of natural endowments of the state. It cannot do commercial business with them; howsoever glitzy the painted benefits thereofare made to appear.