It has been four years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid foundation stone for the construction of capital city for Andhra Pradesh at Amaravati.
Except wasting time in the name of finalising designs and approving the masterplan and raising a few temporary structures to run the administration, Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu had not done much for giving a shape to Amaravati.
Only in the last one year before the elections was some activity in Amaravati with the foundation stones laid for permanent secretariat, high court and other official buildings, besides constructing quarters for ministers, MLAs and officials.
After YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy came to power in May this year, Amaravati was pushed to backburner.
He did not want to do any hasty job on the capital construction, which smacked of massive corruption and large-scale manipulation in land pooling.
He has constituted an expert committee to go into the irregularities first and then take a decision on how to take the capital works forward.
Apparently realising that the irregularities in the capital construction would be exposed, Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh have been crying foul over the alleged neglect of the capital city by the YSRC government on the occasion of four years of Amaravati foundation.
Naidu said Amaravati was a golden goose for the government and Jagan had completely killed it.
“The total area of the capital is 53,000 acres. After constructing the capital in around 43,000 acres, the government would be left with 10,000 acres, which would be enough to generate the money for the capital works. But just because I started the capital city, Jagan wanted to kill it,” he lamented.
Lokesh found fault with YSRC leaders for their inconsistent statements on Amaravati. He questioned Jagan on his stance on the capital city.
"We often hear stories of trees falling down and people leaving the cities fearing evil spirits, but these stories are true in case of Amaravati." Lokesh tweeted.