AP Withdraws Controversial Three Capitals Bill

The Andhra Pradesh government today took a sensational decision to withdraw its three 3-capitals bills introduced in January 2020 that have been awaiting ratification from the Legislative Council, and decided to restore the abolished CRDA Act.

State Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy tabled an amendment bill today in the Assembly to restore the CRDA, and a repeal bill to withdraw the three bills.

The minister said that there was a need to undertake an in-depth study of the state capitals decentralization bill, being challenged in the AP High Court, and that it would be reintroduced after all problems were fixed.

He said that the CRDA Act would come into force with immediate effect.

For the unversed, soon after the YSR Congress Party took over the state, it junked Chandrababu Naidu's decision and work to make Amaravathi the greenfield capital of the truncated state, and chose to split the capital to three cities - Kurnool (judicial), Amaravathi (legislative) and Visakhapatnam (administration).

Protests - and cases - immediately erupted, and are ongoing. Also, the Legislative Council still belonged to the TDP in 2019-2020, and the Council referred the bill to a select committee, but the government stalled that claiming that the process that was followed was erroneous. That step by the government is also being scrutinized by the High Court now.

It is quite possible that the government doesn't see itself winning any of those cases, and wants to introduce new bills by plugging all the earlier loopholes, especially now that it has a majority in the Council too.