Deo for Visakhapatnam as new capital

Cites Justice K N Wanchoo Committee Report

New Delhi: Union Panchayati Raj Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has brought out Justice K N Wanchoo Committee Report to plead for making Visakhapatnam as the new Capital of the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh. Way back in 1952, Justice K N Wanchoo Committee had identified Visakhapatnam as a possible temporary Capital for the Andhra State, which became the first State to be formed on the basis of linguistic reorganization, on October 1, 1953.

As the race to identify a place for locating the new Capital for the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh hots up, Kishore Chandra Deo has come up with the proposal of making Visakhapatnam as the Capital.

In his presentation to the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telangana, Kishore Chandra Deo said that there is urgency to making the choice of a new Capital for residuary State of Andhra Pradesh along with the final decision on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, as a sense of insecurity is associated with Hyderabad.

“The youth of the non-Telangana region are besieged with the fear of an embargo being imposed upon them for getting jobs in Hyderabad and its surroundings. A fear has gripped the people belonging to non-Telangana region that they may be divested of their immoveable properties, including their residential houses. Furthermore that they will be thrown out of their houses,” Deo said in his presentation to the GoM. “I would like to urge upon you to ensure that the location of the Capital for the Andhra region is necessarily announced with the final decision,” he said.

Wanchoo Committee Report stated, “There is no one place where the temporary Capital can be shifted at once, with perhaps the possible exception of Waltair-Visakhapatnam.” It stated that there are a number of large vacant buildings available there, which can serve the purpose with minor repairs. It noted that Visakhapatnam has a harbor and university and it will grow, irrespective of whether the Capital is located there or not.

The Sri Baug Pact, which was approved by the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee, sought to develop Andhra University campus in Anantapur, so as to distribute the centres of culture across the Seemandhra region.

Sixty years down the line, Visakhapatnam has grown into a modern, cosmopolitan City, with Naval Dockyard and Submarine Base, a modern port, Steel Plant and eversomany industries cropping up there. After Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam has developed as a modern city. It has infrastructural facilities and other attributes for being the permanent Capital of residuary Andhra Pradesh. It has an international airport, operating flights to Dubai and Singapore and more such flights are to be commissioned.

Advantage of locating the Capital in Visakhapatnam is the availability of land. Nearly 9,000 acres of land allotted to the Vizag Steel Plant, renamed as Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited, which is a PSU. It remains unutilized. Another 9,000 acres of land allotted for Special Economic Zone (SEZ) similarly lies unutilized.

These two blocks of land are readily available for utilization for building the necessary infrastructure. Besides, Visakhapatnam has satellite towns like Vizianagaram, Anakapalle, Tuni, Elamanchili, Rajahmundry, Kakinada and Eluru, within a radius of 100 to 200 km and there are vacant lands available around these habitations, with scope for considerable expansion.

Arguing against geometric centrality for locating the new Capital, he said it has never been the issue. Mumbai in Maharashtra, Benguluru in Karnataka and even Delhi, which is the Capital for India, are all located in one corner and not centrally located.