The farmers of Amaravati region have commenced a Maha Pada Yatra across the state with a chariot of Lord Venkateshwara to pressurise the State Government to build capital at Amaravati and abandon the decentralised capital plan.
The march organised by Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi, began at Venkatapalem village in Thullur mandal this morning after obtaining permission from the police in compliance with the High Court order. The march is the second such one with an addition of the chariot and coincides with completion of 1000 days of `Build Amaravati and Save Andhra Pradesh’ movement started by farmers from 29 villages who gave 30,000 acres of land for the Greenfield Capital projected commenced by the previous State Government of Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Capital model
However, the ruling YSRCP Government led by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy made an announcement in the State Assembly on December 19, 2019 that the state would adopt a decentralised capital model with three capitals of legislature, executive and judicial at Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool respectively.
AP High Court subsequently quashed the three capitals bills passed by the State Assembly and directed the State Government to build a single capital at Amaravati and honour the land-pooling agreement of the previous government with the farmers in March 2022.
Solidarity
“The objective of Pada Yatra is to showcase the solidarity of the people not only from Amaravati region but from the entire state for a single capital at Amaravati. We have planned a series of programs during yatra which will end at Arasavalli in Srikakulam district to convince people from other regions about our plight because of the decision of the present Government,” M Satyanarayana, an activist of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi said. .
The farmers’ march would also highlight the `utter disregard’ being shown by the State Government in implementing High Court order, he added.
The organisers are expecting about 500 to 600 farmers to join the Yatra in due course.
The fight for capital at Amaravati has also got political overtones as the Opposition parties — TDP and Jana Sena declaring their support to the farmers.