Setback For Jagan Govt's Three-Capital Plan As Andhra High Court Orders Amaravati Masterplan To Be Implemented

Amaravati, Mar 3 (PTI): The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday ordered that the Amaravati Masterplan be implemented and all development activities be continued in the region in a blow to the YSRC government's plans to have three capitals.

With this judgement, the three capitals idea looks uncertain, though the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government has been claiming that it would not give up on it.

A three-member division bench of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, also ordered that the government honour the agreement signed with farmers, who parted with their lands for the development of the capital city Amaravati, and take up development activities.

The bench ordered that the government submit an affidavit in six months on the progress of the development works in Amaravati.

The division bench, also comprising justices M Satyanarayana Murthy and DVSS Somayajulu, delivered the judgment on a batch of petitions filed by the farmers opposing the Jagan Mohan Reddy government's plan to create three new capitals for the state.

In the original petitions, the farmers also opposed the scrapping of the Capital Region Development Authority Act and the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act.

The state government subsequently repealed the two controversial laws but said it would bring them in a new form.

The High Court on Thursday said it would continue hearing into the various other related petitions in the matter.

The Amaravati Parirakshana Samiti leaders welcomed the High Court judgment and said it was a victory of people and farmers.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)