The ongoing controversy over shifting of administrative capital from Amaravati to north-coastal city of Visakhapatnam by the YSR Congress party government led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy seems to have frustrated a section of Kamma community leaders a lot.
The frustration of this section has gone to such an extent that some of them are now demanding a separate state for coastal Andhra.
Though Visakhapatnam is also a coastal city, probably these people are raising the demand for a separate state for Kamma belt of Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam districts.
A recent post by an NRI Satish Chaganti in the social media read like this: “Forget Chandrababu Naidu and forget TDP. Having faced so much injustice, we have no option but to demand for separate coastal Andhra state. If BJP gives it, let us say “Jai” for it; if Pawan Kalyan takes it up, let us support him. If we don’t set aside our castes and fight unitedly, we will be left with a begging bowl. Income comes from us, but enjoyment is theirs. We cannot tolerate it anymore.”
Apparently, this gentleman was frustrated with the collapse of Amaravati capital city because if capital is not there, his project of Kosta Marina, a riverfront aimed at promoting water- based tourism, besides becoming a venue for national and international water sports events at Venkatapalem in Amaravati, will be wound up.
The project was floated by AP Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) which called for tenders and finalised Kosta Marina and Chaganti is one of the directors of the company.
The project also proposed to develop a recreational drive-in with an open-air theatre and an outdoor games arena in about two to three acres of land. TDP president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu laid foundation stone for the project in early 2019.
The project was part of transforming the River Krishna waterfront area into a recreation/leisure spot, where the residents of the capital region could drive in and spend some quality time. The project was supposed to be taken up under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Now, with Amaravati all set to go into the history, all such fancy projects will go in the dust bin. That is why investors like Chaganti are frustrated!