Jairam bats for Kadapa as New Capital

Hyderabad: Union minister Jairam Ramesh, who played a key role as a member of the Group of Ministers in implementing the Andhra Pradesh bifurcation process, mooted Kadapa in Rayalaseema region as the new capital of residuary State of Andhra.

Addressing a public meeting at Badwel in Kadapa district, Jairam said Kadapa might as well be selected as the new capital of residuary Andhra Pradesh. The Union minister said a financial package of Rs 11,000 crore would be provided for developing Kadapa as the capital city. A report was being prepared to this effect and would be sent to the Centre for consideration, he said.

His remarks raised many an eyebrow as a high level official committee headed by K C Sivaramakrishnan is seized of the issue of finding a capital for Seemandhra. The panel is supposed to visit the State soon as part of its efforts to shortlist places suitable for new capital.

Incidentally the committee held its second meeting at Delhi on Friday and sought suggestions from the stakeholders. Several organisations including AP NGOs met the committee and submitted their opinions.

The committee after deliberations is learnt to have come to the view that no city in Rayalaseema was suitable for establishing the capital and instead, it reportedly favoured a city in the coastal Andhra region.

The committee members discussed basic requirements for establishing a State capital including availability of resources. They focused on the availability of land, underground water, and connectivity with national highways to have accessibility to the capitals of other States, condition of the railway lines, availability of airports and other issues of the capital city.

It examined the statistics related to various cities in Andhra Pradesh being procured from the officials of the State, in its second meeting at AP Bhavan. The committee is expected to submit its report to the Centre by August 31.

Now, with Jairam's statement, Kadapa is added to the list of cities with potential to become the capital of Seemandhra. Already, cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Kurnool, Ongole and Macherla of Guntur district have figured in the list of possible capital city of Seemandhra.

In fact, Kadapa is far away from the north coastal Andhra districts and has severe water scarcity. If north coastal Andhra people want to reach Kadapa, they have to travel through Telangana, for cutting down the distance.

So far no study was done on the resources available at Kadapa. In this backdrop, the Union Minister's statement favouring Kadapa as the capital has come as a big surprise.