The farmers’ protests in Amaravati have completed 250 days, and are showing no signs of receding. The protest demonstrations are being held against the division of Amaravati by farmers who gave up their lands during the land pooling for the construction of the Andhra Pradesh capital.
The 250th day of the protests, in the name of ‘Rajdhani Ranabheri› (capital war cry), was observed in Mandadam, Thulluru, Velagapudi, Dondapadu and other villages in the Amaravati region. Vijayawada MP Kesineni Nani and other leaders participated in the protests in solidarity with farmers.
The farmers have been protesting since Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy announced his decentralisation of the Andhra Pradesh capital in December 2019. They have said that they hope the courts will stop the division of Amaravati.
Telugu Desam Party leader, Vijay Bhaskar Chaganti, told The Daily Guardian, «Jagan Reddy must consider his decision of the trifurcation of the capital. All political parties welcomed and agreed on Amaravati as the capital. Jagan Reddy himself said on the floor of the House that he is welcoming Amaravati as the state capital. During his election campaign too, he announced that he is not going to shift the capital out of Amaravati. He must stand by his words. He always says he stands by his words. He should stick to what he said.”
However, YSRCP leaders said that the capital is not being moved and it continues to serve as the legislative capital, and that there will be no problem regarding the development of Amaravati as feared by the farmers. YSRCP Parliamentary Party Chief Vijaya Sai Reddy said, «There won›t be any problems for the development of Amaravati area. We take care of the welfare of the farmers and their interests are protected. Chandrababu Naidu and others have instilled fear among the farmers unnecessarily. The government is standing by Visakhapatnam as executive and Kurnool as judicial capitals only.”
The then TDP chief, Naidu, has been supporting the Amaravati protests, but due to the ongoing pandemic, he has been confined to his home in Hyderabad. Naidu has been an active participant in the protests and has been tweeting in support of them since the lockdown. However, the government of Jagan Mohan Reddy is planning to go ahead and make Visakhapatnam the executive capital as soon as possible.
Reddy had mentioned that there would be three capitals for Andhra in his Independence Day address too. The Andhra Pradesh CM had said that the move would decentralise the development. On July 31, Andhra Governor Biswabhusan Harichandan gave his assent to the bills which paved the way for moving key capital functions from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam and Kurnool.