Amaravati: We should not repeat Hyd mistake, says Buggana

Amaravati: Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy, who tabled the Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of all Regions Repeal Bill 2021, said that the government intended to bring a balanced regional development in the state and shall have a relook after due considerations.

Summing up the events and discussions that went into decentralisation of development, the minister said that the government did not want to repeat the Hyderabad example by concentrating development in a single region, which is against the recommendations made by both Sri Krishna and Sivaramakrishnan Committee reports. The Sri Krishna Committee submitted its report after an extensive tour in state and clearly mentioned that the concentration of wealth in one region resulted in regional imbalances.

He said that majority of the Central government institutions like BHEL, ECIL, and HAL have been established in Hyderabad, which became engines of development resulting in the growth of ancillary units in the private sector, and followed by increased revenue of that particular city. However, states like Uttar Pradesh established BHEL in Haridwar, Tamil Nadu took it to Trichy and decentralised such institutions to tier-2 and tier-3 cities for balanced growth.

The minister stated that the previous TDP government also repeated the same mistake in 2014, without considering recommendations of the committee reports it had initiated to build a capital in an area of 7,500 sq km while Mumbai extent is just 4,300 sq km.

He said that the government had constituted an expert committee with professionals, followed by Boston consulting group and then a high power committee, to discuss in detail keeping in view the state's future and finances.

Based on their recommendations and duly considering the earlier reports along with the Sri Bagh pact, the government proposed to decentralize by moving the executive body to Visakhapatnam, High Court to Kurnool and Legislature in Amaravati. Since Visakhapatnam is already a city with great connectivity and other basic infra facilities, a little push can take it to top standards that can compete with other capital cities, he said.

He traced the history of Andhra since it separated from Madras in 1953 and further merger with Telangana region in 1956 and the sub-regional aspirations that led to bifurcation of two Telugu states with the cause being concentration of development in the then capital Hyderabad city ignoring other places.