south

Updated: Aug 21, 2019 01:21 IST

Andhra Pradesh minister Satyanarayana Botsa on Tuesday said his government was seriously discussing the location of the state capital and will soon come out with an announcement in this regard.

Botsa said the Krishna river flooding in Amaravati proved that former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has chosen a wrong place for the construction of the capital. “Amaravati is not a suitable place for being the capital as the entire area is prone to frequent flooding. We need to construct check dams, canals, and flood channels to drain out water during the flood season,” he said.

He said the cost of constructions will be huge in Amaravati compared to other places. “It is going to be a huge burden on the state exchequer and a lot of public money is going to be wasted.”

Ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) general secretary V Vijay Sai Reddy backed Botsa. He tweeted the Centre would definitely raise the question as to why the government had chosen such a low-lying place for the capital. He added Amaravati is unsafe for habitations because of floods. “People also would raise the same doubt in the coming days.”

Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy has maintained that Amaravati as state capital was not his priority since he took office in May. He has said the construction of the capital was full of scams. The chief minister has ordered a probe into the alleged corruption in the land pooling and contracts allotted for the construction.

Buragadda Veda Vyas, a leader of Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party (TDP), said Botsa’s statement was a clear indication that the YSRCP government did not want to continue with the capital in Amaravati. “Right from the beginning, the TDP has been saying that the government would cite floods as an excuse to abandon Amaravati and select a new place,” Vyas said.

Naidu had vowed to make Amaravati one of the world’s top 10 capital cities. He pooled over 34,000 acres of land from nearly 25,000 farmers for construction of the capital.