At a time when the anti-establishment media in Andhra Pradesh has stepped up its campaign in favour of Amaravati and against the YSR Congress party government’s move to create three capitals, Sakshi, the mouthpiece of the YSRC has come out with an interesting banner story in support of decentralisation.
It is on the proposal of Jharkhand chief minister Hemath Soren to have four sub-capitals, along with its capital city of Ranchi.
The Sakshi’s story says the proposal of Soren got an inspiration from decentralisation model of Jagan Mohan Reddy government in Andhra Pradesh.
The report went on to claim that Jagan’s model is getting nation-wide appreciation and has become a role model for other states.
It said experts suggest that mulit-capital concept is the only way of achieving all round development of the state.
It is a different matter that Soren does not want to shift the administrative capital from Ranchi and relocate secretariat, high court and assembly to three different capitals.
He only wants to create four sub-capitals on the lines of regional development zones proposed in AP for decentralising development, rather than administration.
Interestingly, the other two major Telugu dailies – Eenadu and Andhra Jyothy quoted a report published in RSS mouthpiece Organiser, which castigated Jagan for coming out with the three capitals concept and playing with the lives of the people.
Both the dailies quoted the RSS paper describing Jagan’s decision as “Tughlaqian decision” and seeking immediate central intervention.
Continuing with their anti-Visakhapatnam and pro-Amaravati campaign on Friday, too, the two anti-establishment dailies carried different stories.
Eenadu carried a banner story on how land sharks have already started resorting to land mafia activities in and around Bhimili area, while Andhra Jyothy’s lead story is on how Boston Consulting Group had done superficial study on decentralisation of governance.
Apart from these stories with their respective political leanings, the common story with public interest carried by all the three dailies was on Corona Virus that is creating havoc in China and how it has now entered India through affected patients coming from China.
The stories explained how the Telugu governments are taking precautionary measures to avoid spread of the disease.
Among other important stories that figured in the Telugu dailies are: establishment of fibrenet in the Telugu states at a cost of Rs 1500 crore, irritating questions being asked in the National Population Register, meeting between chief secretaries of the two Telugu states to sort out pending issues, resignation of V V Lakhsminarayana from Jana Sena etc.