HC Struck Down PIL On Hyd Joint Capital

In another setback for the YCP government, the Andhra Pradesh High Court struck down the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) asking the authorities to direct the Union Home ministry to pass an Act for continuing Hyderabad as the joint capital for another 10 years.

The court asked the petitioner how can it ask the Parliament to pass an Act and understand that they too have some constraints. The court struck down the petition saying that it cannot interfere into the issue.

Soon after the YCP assumed power, party president and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy put forward the proposal to construct three capitals for Andhra Pradesh to decentralize power. However, his main intention to reduce prominence to Amaravati and shift the administration to Vizag, which he said would be developed as an executive capital. Later, he even set many deadlines which were never met for shifting his residence to the Port City.

At one instance, he even said that constructing the capital in Amaravati would cost Rs 30 lakh crore and that its development would take 100 years. He said Amaravati cannot be developed as a capital as it was also facing the problem of getting submerged when River Krishna faces floods.

However, after being bogged down by many legal hassles and agitation by the Capital Region farmers, he finally raised the idea of asking the Centre to continue considering Hyderabad as the joint capital for 10 years.