Amaravati agitation @ 500 days

Dear friends,

Greetings to you all.

Few days back, I received an invitation to give 10 minutes speech related to the "Andhra Pradesh State Capital - Amaravati Agitation issue", in the zoom webinar to be held on 30.4.21, that is on the 500th day agitation programme.

 

As you know, I have aversion towards all political parties, due to personal reasons.

Since this agitation is being lead by a Joint Action Committee in the name of  "Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi", by the local people in general and the farmers who gave their lands for the sake of Capital city construction in particular................................. I gave my consent to participate in the zoom webinar programme.

I have been alloted the time-slot from 10.55AM to 11.05 AM, as one among the 21 Speakers of the programme, by the programme coordinators.

Following is the text of my speech, in the zoom webinar.

My dear Brothers & Sisters, 

Greetings to you all. 

 

First of all, I am thankful to you for giving me this opportunity, to express my views on this agitation. 

 

I am Abdul Naseer, Managing Director of Helping Hands Foundation.  

 

We help the needy, in resolving their pending issues, which comes under the RTI Act preview. 

 

As a common man of Tirupati city, my concern is not about Single capital city or three capitals at different places of our state. 

Because, fortunately or unfortunately, Tirupati is not one among the three places identified, for establishing one of the main wings of the Government. 

 

But as a social activist & responsible citizen of this Andhra Pradesh state,  

my worry is about …..... 

1. The fate of the people, who gave their fertile 33000 acres land for the sake of construction and development of various amenities at the proposed capital city at Amaravati. 
2. About the time & efforts spent by the previous Government for the land acquisition & pooling, for its development process and shifting of administrative set-up from Hyderabad. 
3. About the faith of the people on the system and the Government. 
4. About the trust of the national & international investors, who invested crores of rupees, in the bonds floated by the then State Government.  
5. About the material & man-power spent at the would-be capital Amaravati, by the National & International organizations, for more than half-a-decade from the year 2014 onwards. 

 

When the change of power in the State Government, from one political party to another party, can cause such a huge impact on the state of affairs, then how the people can have confidence in future, on any decisions taken by the Government?  

 

Having state capital at different places, do have its own positives. 

 

No doubt, 3 capital cities for a state can decentralize the power and helps in growth of those 3 cities and their surrounding areas in different ways. It will also bring notable change, in the entire state too.  

There are some states in our country, which have their legislative assemblies at different parts of the state, for part of the year.  

For example: 

Maharashtra at Mumbai & Nagpur, 

Himachal Pradesh at Shimla & Dharamshala, 

Karnataka at Bangalore & Belgaum 

 

But it is too late now to have 3 capitals at different places for our AP State, as considerable amounts of resources, efforts were already invested at Amaravati, for a prolonged period of more than 5 years. 

 

Because,,,,,,, 

Subsequent to the decision of the then Government, external global parties, national organizations and individuals were invited and contracted to work on this project. After sufficiently prolonged period of half a decade, nullifying the earlier decision has set a chain of unfortunate consequences like the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other foreign organizations pulling out their support, grinding halt of the development process going on at Amaravati, agony of  the FARMERs who gave their livelihood generating landed property to the Government,  etc, etc.

As per the available statistics, the then state government has spent crores for land pooling of more than 33000 acres, shifting of administrative set-up from Hyderabad and in other related expenses. 

 

Though the entire amount mentioned above may not go as waste, yet the purpose behind its investment will definitely get defeated, if the Amaravati Capital project is dropped. 

 

Further, what is the guarantee that the political party that comes into power in the next elections and forms the government, will not take this as a precedence and resort to some other radical changes. 

 

In view of the above, it is better to continue the development process of constructing the Capital city at Amaravati.

I once again sincerely thank  the organizers of this program, for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts with you all.

May Almighty show the right direction to the JAC & the people of this agitation and bless with the best.

.

After concluding my speech, as a thank-you message, the programme chairperson on the dais asked me to help them by getting certain information through filing the RTI Application. 

In order to extend suitable help to the above agitation from our Helping Hands Foundation, I sent the following link deals with our HHF strategy, to the team member of the "Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi", through the WhatsApp number available with me.

https://helpinghandsnaseer.blogspot.com/2020/07/helping-hands-strategy.html

Let us extend our Helping Hands to farmers, who are struggling hard for more than 500 days.

What do you say, my dear friends? 

Regards,

Abdul Naseer.

.