AP govt splurges on stone-laying ceremony of new capital; Green Tribunal frowns

Grandiose arrangements with minute precision are afoot on a sprawling 250-acre land for the foundation-laying ceremony of the dream capital of Andhra Pradesh by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 October.

The auspicious time as fixed by the pundits advising Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is 12.45 pm on the Vijayadasami Day, marking the end of Dusshera Navaratri. The government has chosen the North-East corner of the capital region for the foundation. Narendra Modi, who scrupulously observes fasting during the Navaratri days, will lay the foundation stone amid 4,000 specially-invited guests, including several of his cabinet colleagues, governors and chief ministers of different states.

The Andhra government will also extend invites to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition YS Jaganmohan Reddy, who is currently on an indefinite fast, and also leaders of different political parties. Naidu is demonstrating political grace by personally calling on his Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and inviting him for the gala inaugural. A galaxy of leaders, jurists, bureaucrats, industrialists, business tycoons, movie stars and a host of global and national level celebrities being invited for the never-before event.

Naidu has drawn up a plan for a 10-day festival to involve every nook and cranny of the state. He held a teleconference on Sunday with over 5,000 representatives of different villages. The government plans to have people bring soil and water from all the 13,000 villages and 3,000 wards in urban areas to a site near Nagarajuna University and cart them in a caravan to the foundation-laying site. The state is also planning to felicitate all the farmers – rythu vandanam – who donated their land as part of land pooling for the construction of the new Capital for which the Singapore government and companies have delivered a master plan.

Coming to the expenditure part, the state is literally splurging funds on the ceremony. It will be managed by global event management company Wizcraft. Here is the ballpark estimate of the ‘capital’ expenditure as provided by the government sources:

1. Six connecting roads from different places in the Capital region to Uddandaraynipalem (seed capital) - Rs 35 crore
2. Four new roads (from Gannavaram to Mangalagiri- Penumaka) – Rs 15 cr
3. Black-topping of existing roads – Rs 5 cr
4. Electrification of four villages and laying of new roads – Rs 8 cr
5. Land levelling and fortification of 250 acres – Rs 2 cr
6. Event management consultancy (Wizcraft) – Rs 9.5 cr
7. Lighting, art, hospitality, invitation consultancy  - Rs 10 cr
8. Publicity – Rs 10 cr
9. Electronic publicity – Rs 10 cr
10. Chartered aircraft (10) – Rs 2 cr
11. Helicopters (15 to 19) – Rs 2 cr
12. Hotel rooms (1,500) – Rs 1 cr
13. New clothes to farmers who gave land (15,000) – Rs 60 lakh
14. Construction of 5 helipads – Rs 1.5 cr
15. Cultural programs, mementos, gifts – Rs 50 lakh
16. Weeklong programmes across 13 districts – Rs 25 lakh
17. Tents (including rainproof tents)) – Rs 50 lakh

Floor leader of the Congress in the AP Legislative Council C Ramachandraiah has slammed the government for its extravagance. “The government is yet to clear farm and DWCRA loans and several of its electoral promises are left unfulfilled,” he said, adding “even the treasury bills are being asked to be put on hold.”

Former Secretary to Union government EAS Sarma wrote to the Prime Minister on Sunday urging him not to “endorse the splurge” by participating in the foundation laying of the new Capital, the construction was stayed by the National Green Tribunal. Dr Sarma recalled that the Sivaramakrishnan Committee constituted by the Centre for the capital construction recommended “least possible dislocation to the existing agricultural system and minimum resettlement.”

Citing brewing resentment among people of North Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema on the concentration of development and huge expenditure on proposed projects in the capital region, he said his experience in the creation of capitals of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal in his capacity as Secretary to government also suggested that what the AP government was doing was uneconomical and unwise.

Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal on Saturday threw the proverbial spanner in the works of AP’s over the top arrangements with lavish expenditure. An NGT bench consisting of Justices UD Salvi, and MS Nambiar, members AK Agarwal, AR Yousuf and Ranjan Chaterjee, in response to a petition, filed by one Pandalaneni Srimannarayana extended the stay on the construction activity in the capital region and directed the state not to “bulldoze the agricultural lands”.

The NGT expressed its dismay over the state’s counsel AK Ganguly’s response that it had yet to apply for some environmental clearances. The counsel also admitted before the bench that the government did not complete the survey of flood-prone areas on the banks of the Krishna in the capital region.

The government is, however, proposing to challenge the decision of NGT in the Supreme Court.