Bill introduced in AP Assembly to give shape to plan of having

: The Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government on Monday introduced a Bill in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly to give shape to its plan of having three capitals for the state, with the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, Legislative capital in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool.

The AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, also provides for dividing the state into various zones and establishing zonal planning and development boards.

The village and (municipal) ward secretariats system that the government brought in in October last year now gets statutory backing as it has been made part of the new Bill.

Moving the Bill in the Assembly on the first day of the extended winter session, Finance and Legislative Affairs Minister Buggana Rajendranath said the government decided to enact a new legislation for decentralisation and inclusive development of all regions in the state for ensuring "balanced and inclusive growth" of AP.

"Regional imbalances, absence of equitable growth have caused an acute sense of deprivation among various sections of the state population, leading to disturbances.

"The logical solution would be to lay emphasis on distributed development and decentralised administration to ensure fruits of socio-economic progress are enjoyed equally by people of various regions," the minister said, quoting the recommendations of the High-Power Committee of ministers and bureaucrats, which formed the basis of the new legislation.

The TDP members raised objection to the introduction of the Bill and stormed the Speakers podium.

Amid the din, the government also moved another Bill to repeal the AP Capital Region Development Authority Act, 2014.

The government said it intended to constitute a new Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Area under the provisions of AP Metropolitan Region and Urban Development Authorities Act, 2016.

The CRDA Act was enacted on December 22, 2014 for the development of the state capital post-bifurcation with a specific area demarcated as the capital region.

Now that the YSR Congress government has decided to have three capitals for the state, the CRDA Act is proposed to be repealed.

Earlier in the day, the Cabinet met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and cleared the draft Bills. The Cabinet also approved the recommendations of the HPC on the capitals issue.

But the government could face hurdles in getting the Bills cleared in the Legislative Council, which sits from tomorrow, as the ruling party does not have majority.