A new amendment to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation law has legally settled the capital question, with Amaravati now formally recognised following Parliamentary approval and presidential assent.
Gates was received at Gannavaram Airport by the state IT minister, Nara Lokesh. He then went to the state Secretariat, where he was welcomed by the chief minister, Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and the other ministers.
The spectre of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy continues to haunt Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu prompting him to look for legal protection for his flagship project, Amaravati capital city, through legislation.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday announced that Amaravati will be a self-financing capital city project without any state budgetary assistance as Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav presented an annual Budget for 2025-26 with a total outlay of Rs 3,22,359 crore.
Naidu is scheduled to be sworn-in as chief minister on 12 June in the presence of a host of VIPs, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who are expected to attend the ceremony.
The Andhra chief minister contrasted his bete-noire for his anti-poor stance with his government’s decision to distribute 50,000 house pattas among the poor in Amaravati on 26 May.
With the Andhra Pradesh High Court giving its green signal, preparations were in full swing for the second Maha Padyatra by farmers to demand the development of Amaravati as the state capital.
Nearly 35 per cent of the urban population live in slums. More than 50 per cent of Covid cases have been traced to slums in 12 major cities where physical distance is a far cry and containment is a huge challenge. The Government of India's provision of Rs 70,000 crore for rental housing in PPP looks like a single pony trick which achieves very little with underlying factors not being addressed. Slums have come up not because of poverty and encroachments alone, but because of lack of affordable housing on the one hand and failed policies on the other. The Town Planning Act of 1947 does not factor in the urban poor, workmen and migrant labour.
The richest religious body in the country, the TTD has been in the news of late with reports of a cash crunch following the Covid-19 induced lockdown and the resultant freeze on contributions from the devotees.
