There seems to be a lot of confusion in the YSR Congress party over Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh, after party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy declared the construction of capital in Amaravati, which is a river basin, as an “insane” move.
In the last two days, the YSRCP leaders are making confusion and contradictory statements without clarifying whether they would endorse Amaravati as the capital city or defend Jagan’s opposition to Amaravati or whether they still stick to the stand of having three capitals for the state.
On Saturday, YSRCP state coordinator Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy said the TDP leaders are making a hue and cry over Jagan’s observations made an interaction with the national media reporters, only to divert the attention of the people from Rayalaseema Lift Irrigation Scheme.
“The issue raised by Jagan Mohan Reddy is a genuine concern as Chandrababu Naidu did not do justice to the farmers who parted with 50,000 acres of land in the first phase and is seeking another 50,000 acres of land in the second phase,” Sajjala said, without commenting on Jagan’s opposition to Amaravati.
He said Naidu has been talking tall and the grandiosity has no substance as he plans to build Secretariat in a space of 50 lakh sq.ft. which is hyperbolic.
“The Parliament itself is 7 lakh sq.ft. while Telangana Secretariat is 10 lakh sq ft. The larger the area, the larger the corruption in the form of mobilization advance,” he said.
Sajjala admitted that Jagan Mohan Reddy had preferred Visakhapatnam as the seat of powerm but he had not ignored or degraded Amaravati, as he built his house before the 2019 elections.
“On the other hand, Chandrababu Naidu has been using Vizag for commercial purposes and floating Amaravati as capital to mint money though there is no boom in land value,” he said.
The YSRCP leader said Naidu has been draining the money in the name of Amaravati by paying exorbitant rates to his own favoured contractors and it has become the mother of all scams.