Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday asserted that the decision to have separate seats of governance at Amaravati (legislative), Visakhapatnam (executive or administrative) and Kurnool (judicial) was a cautious one prompted by the benefits of decentralisation and the State’s shoe-string budget.
Completing former CM N. Chandrababu Naidu’s dream capital city, which is neither in Vijayawada nor in Guntur and lacked even a two-lane road, entailed an expenditure of ₹1.09 lakh crore on basic infrastructure alone at ₹2 crore per acre, he said. The present government was not in a position to spend huge sums on such grandiose plans. If the lands where construction activity was not permitted by the National Green Tribunal and the River Conservation Act were to be excluded, the State was left with just about 5,200 acres.
Sharing his views at a conclave ‘Excellence in Education’ organised by The Hindu Group and moderated by its Chairman N. Ram here, Mr. Reddy said even if the government spent 10% of ₹1.09 lakh crore on Visakhapatnam, it would become a growth engine capable of competing with Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad in about 10 years.
Earlier, Mr. Ram called the decision to introduce English medium in government schools a radical step and said it seemed to be demand-driven and in tune with the thrust laid on the English language in the southern States. “What Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy proposed is universalisation of English medium education, which no other State has perhaps ventured out to do,” Mr. Ram observed.
To a question by Mr. Ram on the reverse tendering process, Mr. Reddy said ₹2,000 crore was saved in various works in the last seven months. He exuded confidence that it would emerge as a model for other States.
