It is certain that the administrative capital city of Andhra Pradesh is going to be shifted from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
The relevant bills have already been passed in the state assembly and it is only a matter of time that they become Acts.
Even minister for panchayat raj Peddireddy Ramachandra Reddy made it clear in no uncertain terms that the government would start functioning from Visakhapatnam with effect from Ugadi, the Telugu New Year Day.
Naturally, people who had invested huge money on real estate in and around Amaravati are worried because the real estate there has crashed and nobody is interested to buy plots or lands in the area.
Last year, when there was a lot of hype about Amaravati with construction works going on in full swing, the then TDP government proposed to allot a piece of land for journalists as well. They formed into a cooperative housing society and got the land allotted to it.
Applications were received from journalists in a big way. Even Andhra journalists working in New Delhi also paid the membership fee for the journalists’ cooperative housing society. With the change of government in the state, the project went into the cold storage.
When YSRC president and chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy came to New Delhi, some journalists met him and brought to his notice that they had paid money to the cooperative society but had not got the plots at Amaravati so far. They requested him to see that the plots are allotted to them.
This has surprised Jagan. He smiled at them and asked: “You want house sites in Amaravati?” Obviously, he was wondering why the journalists are asking for plots in Amaravati, when the capital is being shifted to Visakhapatnam.
May be, he was expecting the journalists to ask him plots in Visakhapatnam. So, when they wanted plots at Amaravati, he questioned them sarcastically. But within minutes, he gave a nod to their request saying:
“In any case, Amaravati is also going to be a capital city – a legislative capital, where I will operate for 70 days a year.”