Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy appears to have fixed Dasara-Vijaya Dasami that falls on October 24 this year as ‘Muhurtam’ to shift his administration along with lock, stock and barrel from Tadepalli in Amaravati to Visakhapatnam.
Though in the past he announced several times that he would be shifting to Vizag and delivering governance from the port city, it is learnt that this Dasara he is determined to go ahead with his plan.
After discussions on the agenda items, the chief minister in the cabinet meeting on Wednesday said to have told his cabinet colleagues that this year they would celebrate Dasara at Vizag indicating the shifting.
Sources in the government told DH that an internal committee has been appointed to look after the needs, space, and other infra including the security arrangements needed for the shifting.
Along with the camp office and residence of the chief minister, offices related to the support staff, especially the General Administration Department (GAD) will be moved to Vizag. It is learnt that after the general elections and the beginning of the next academic year, the entire state administration, offices of the HoDs, and secretariat will be shifted to Vizag.
For now, it will be only the CM camp office cum residence, a few HoD offices that directly work with CMO will be shifted to Vizag.
A senior YSRCP leader told Deccan Herald that Jagan has no choice but to shift as elections are fast approaching and his three capitals plan is still entangled in legal trouble.
“He has no choice but to shift his camp office to Vizag to prove a point that he is committed to making Vizag, the executive capital of the state. Officially, he can't move the entire administration to Vizag owing to his three capitals plan as the issue is still in the court. He can now shift to Vizag and work from there as a saving grace,” said a senior YSRCP functionary.
Touting decentralised governance and equitable development of all regions in the state as the aim, Jagan few months after he came to power in 2019 proposed three capitals for post-bifurcation Andhra Pradesh, which had lost Hyderabad to the newly-formed Telangana in 2014.
According to the three capitals plan, Vizag was to be the executive capital where the chief minister, the Cabinet and the bureaucracy would sit. Amaravati in Palnadu district was to be the legislative capital, and seat of the Assembly, and Kurnool would host the Andhra Pradesh High Court and be the judicial capital.
Later, farmers who had participated in the land pooling scheme and surrendered their lands to build a grand capital- Amaravati during the TDP regime between 2014 and 2019 approached the court against the Jagan government’s three capitals plan.
The case is now being heard by the Supreme Court which had posted the matter for hearing later in December.
Meanwhile, there is also a stay on shifting any government offices from Amaravati to Vizag by the High Court that had withheld the TDP’s government’s plan to have only one capital to Andhra Pradesh which is Amaravati.
“Chief minister doesn’t need anyone’s permission to have his office anywhere in the state of his choice. Chief Minister Jagan would be shifting his camp office to Vizag. He can work anywhere of his choice in the state. There were instances where Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalitha had worked from Ooty instead of Chennai. Likewise, Jagan moving to Vizag to work from there has nothing to do with the ongoing cases on three capitals in the courts,” said Andhra Pradesh Industries and IT minister, Gudivada Amarnath.
It is learnt that the CMO will function from one of the blocks being constructed for resorts by the Andhra Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation (APTDC) on the Rushikonda hillock overlooking the Bay of Bengal in Vizag.