New Delhi, Dec 17 (FN Representative) The farmers of Amaravati under the banner Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi on Saturday staged a protest here, against the Andhra Pradesh government over its decision to establish three capitals, instead of a single capital at Amaravati. Demanding that Amaravati be developed as the only state capital as decided by the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government, the farmers of Amaravati and other sections of people have been fighting under the umbrella of the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi. Representatives of various political parties, including Congress and CPI, extended their support to the farmers who held the protest at the Jantar Mantar against the state government’s plans to bring new and comprehensive legislation for developing three state capitals instead of one, against the Amaravati capital city master plan, envisaged by then Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in 2014.
Addressing the farmers, president of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi, Shiva Reddy, who has been spearheading the movement, said, “After coming to power in 2019, the YSRCP Government in Andhra Pradesh had reversed the decision of the previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the only state capital. ” He added,” It had decided to develop three state capitals – Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool. This had triggered massive protests from farmers of Amaravati, who had given 33,000 acres of land for the capital. The farmers had organised a ‘Maha Padayatra’ from Amaravati to Tirupati last year to mobilise public support for their demands.”