Even as the agitating farmers of Amaravati are knocking the doors of Andhra Pradesh high court to prevent shifting of the government offices from Amaravati, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government continues to go ahead with its capital shift exercise.
On Monday, the Jagan government issued orders releasing Rs 19.73 crore for construction of Millennium-B towers at Madhurawada in Visakhapatnam city. The funds are being released to the Information Technology department.
According to sources, the Millennium-B towers would be used for accommodating various government departmental offices. The existing Millennium-A tower is expected to be used for the Secretariat including the Chief Minister’s Office.
The release of funds for the Millennium-B towers comes within two days after the release of another order directing shifting of the offices of the Vigilance Commissioner, Chairman of Commissionerate of Inquires and also that of the Member(s) Commissioner of Inquires functioning from Interim Government Complex, Secretariat at Velagapudi to Kurnool.
It is learnt retired IAS officer Veena Ish took charge as AP Vigilance Commissioner of AP on Monday and she would be operating from her office in Kurnool shortly.
According to sources, several other offices from the Secretariat would also be shifted to Visakhapatnam one after the other, once suitable office spaces are identified.
Irrigation minister P Anil Kumar was in Visakhapatnam on Friday to look for office spaces for his department closer to Andhra University.
Meanwhile, farmers of Amaravati on Monday moved yet another petition in the state high court challenging the evacuation of offices to Kurnool. The petition described the GO No. 13 as illegal. The petition would come for hearing on Tuesday.