Jagan Postpones Decision On Three-Capitals Formula

After a two-hour cabinet meeting, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy on Friday postponed the decision on the proposal of three capitals for the State.

The cabinet is said to have decided on that after taking into consideration the submissions made in a report by the G N Rao committee set up to examine the capital issue. The committee had submitted its report on December 20.

Agriculture Minister Kurusala Kannababu said that the State government would take a final decision on the capital location after getting a report from international consulting firm Boston Consultancy Group (BCG), expected on January 3, too.

For the uninitiated, Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had hinted at the possibility of setting up three capitals for the State on December 17. He recommended that the existing capital Amaravathi serve as the legislative capital, the port city of Visakhapatnam be developed as the executive capital, and Kurnool be the judiciary capital.

The cabinet also:

1. Decided to build the Machilipatnam port using the State's own money

2. Finalized the reservations to be followed in the gram panchayat elections

3. Decided to buy 108 new vehicles and sanctioned Rs 78 crore for the purchase of 413 new vehicles

Information & Public Relations Minister Perni Nani said that a cabinet sub-committee had found that the previous government had committed several mistakes, and that the government would act upon the mistakes as per the advice of legal experts. He also said the State government would take a decision whether to hand over the inquiry into the mistakes to the CBI, the CID or the Lok Ayukta.