Venkaiah Naidu seeks passage of Bill in Parliament for legal status to Amaravati

Amaravati: Former Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu, has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to pass a Bill in the current session of Parliament to provide legal status to Andhra Pradesh’s capital, Amaravati.

Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday spoke to Amit Shah about the resolution passed by the state Assembly, urging the Centre to amend the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act 2014 to accord legal status to the capital.

Naidu recalled that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the Andhra Pradesh capital, Amaravati, he was the Union Urban Development Minister then.

The former Vice President also mentioned the assistance rendered by the Centre for the development of the state capital.

Venkaiah Naidu also referred to developments following 2019 and the setbacks received by the state capital. To prevent a similar situation arising in future, he suggested that the Bill to accord legal status to Amaravati as Andhra Pradesh’s capital be passed during the current Parliament session.

Amit Shah is reported to have responded positively to the suggestion. He informed Venkaiah Naidu that the Union Home Ministry has completed the groundwork and that once the Union Cabinet clears the Bill, the same would be tabled in Parliament.

The Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly held a special session on Saturday to pass a resolution, requesting the Central government to declare and notify Amaravati as the sole capital city of the state.

The resolution said the words ‘at Amaravati’ be inserted in Section 5 (2) of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014 (APRA) and ‘and Amaravati includes the Capital city areas notified under the A.P. Capital Regional Development Act, 2014’ be added to the explanation to Section 5 as per the advice of the High Court contained in its order dated March 3, 2022.

Assembly Speaker Ch. Ayyanna Patrudu forwarded the resolution to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha Speaker, the Union Home Minister, the Secretary of the Union Home Ministry and the Chief Secretary of the State government.

IANS