Memorandum from California NRIs to The President of India.


Memorandum from California NRIs to The President of India.

                                                                                                                                      

December 30, 2019
San Ramon,
                                                                                                 California USA
To,
The Honorable President of India,
Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi 110004.

Sub: Requesting your urgent intervention for continuation of Amaravati as The Capital of Andhra Pradesh.

Respected Sir,

We, the undersigned persons, immigrated from AP and living in San Francisco bay area, California USA, would like to bring to your kind attention the present painful situation in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The formation of State of Telangana in 2014 left the residual state of Andhra Pradesh with no capital city and newly formed government of AP selected Amaravati as its new capital after carefully considering various factors like geographic location, available resources, proximity to airport, road and railway networks. All parties in AP Assembly unanimously supported this motion and the foundation stone for the new capital was laid by Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi ji on 22/10/2015.

To create a world class city, the government of AP peacefully acquired nearly 33000 acres of land from farmers in 29 villages in a historic, first in the nation, land pooling concept with a promise that farmers will get well developed plots in the capital city region. But the present Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Sri Jaganmohan Reddy is creating three capitals for the state, migrating legislative and executive branches of the government from Amaravati to Vishakhapatnam in north east corner of the state to gain political mileage by dividing people on regional lines.

Consequences of these unjustified and cruel political actions are,

1.Farmers who sacrificed their ancestral lands for the sake of state capital are in state of limbo with no future. As land being the only source of income, the farmers and their families are going thru severe emotional pain and protesting in streets for the last two weeks.

2.Government already spent thousands of crores on the development of massive infrastructure and on various construction projects in Amaravati. To stop these projects abruptly will be huge waste of public funds.

3.Causes erosion of trust on Government and in future no one will come forward to offer their lands for public use which in turn will become a major issue for infrastructure development in the country.

4.As farmers signed legal contracts with the government while offering their lands, the very sanctity of government signed contracts are in questionable state.

5.Amaravati Bonds have been issued and listed in Bombay stock exchange with sole purpose of raising funds from investors to build capital city of Amaravati. The shifting of capital from Amaravati will downgrade investor confidence on public projects and will impact private funding for all other public projects in future.

6.Government of Singapore already pulled back its joint venture participation in capital city development causing a big blow to India’s investment rating and global investor confidence on India.

7.Destroys the concept of ‘business continuity’, whenever the new governments change the directions on matters related to already agreed core foundational issues like capital city.

8.The concept of land Pooling in Amaravati became a national public policy model for peaceful acquisition of private lands for public good. The present government decision will destroy the people’s confidence on this ideal concept.

9.Creation of three capitals is neither financially viable for a state already in deep fiscal troubles nor convenient for the public & employees. It will have huge negative impact on the development of the state. Centralized core administration for a decentralized development is ideal for states like AP.

In the last six decades, people of Andhra Pradesh have gone thru painful process of losing well developed capitals twice and slowly recovering emotionally with the creation of their own people’s capital in Amaravati. They are looking at Amaravati as a symbol of their pride and gaining confidence to move forward towards all round progress of the state. But the latest decision of creation of three capitals on political grounds caused a big blow on their sentiments and brought people on to streets to protest the unjustified decision.

We are kindly requesting your urgent intervention for the continuation of Amaravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh to reduce tensions, restore people’s confidence on the very system of governance & established laws of the land and to honor the sacrifices made by 30,000 small farmers of Amaravati.
                                                                                         
CC to PMO,
CC to Home Ministry.
CC to Honorable Vice President                                           

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