Jagan to shift AP capital to Vizag in September

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday said that the state government will start functioning from Visakhapatnam from September this year.

He made the announcement while addressing a public meeting at Naupada in Srikakulam district.

The chief minister said he would be moving from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam as part of the decentralisation of power.

This is the first time that Jagan has specified a time period for shifting the administrative capital to the port city.

Last month, during the Global Investors Summit 2023 in Visakhapatnam, he had declared that he would shortly move over to the city.

At the curtain raiser event in Delhi on January 31, the chief minister had announced that Visakhapatnam will soon be the state capital.

It was on December 17, 2019 that Jagan had announced in the state Assembly that three state capitals will be developed reversing the decision of the previous TDP government to develop Amaravati as the state capital.

The YSRCP government mooted Visakhapatnam as administrative capital, Kurnool as judicial capital and Amaravati as legislative capital.

However, the protest by farmers of Amaravati over shifting of the capital and the High Court order directing the government to develop Amaravati as the state capital had delayed the process.

On March 3, 2022, AP High Court had directed the state government to develop Amaravati as the state capital in six months. A bench of three judges had pronounced the judgment on 75 petitions filed by Amaravati farmers and others challenging the government’s move on three capitals.

However, the state government filed an appeal in the Supreme Court. In November last year, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court order saying the court cannot act like a town planner or an engineer.