AMARAVATI: Giving a fresh twist to the capital city controversy, municipal administration and urban development minister
Botcha Satyanarayana
on Monday said
Parliament
has not endorsed
Amaravati
as the capital city of Andhra Pradesh. He further said that Hyderabad is the joint capital city for both AP and Telangana till 2024 as per AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Speaking to reporters in the assembly, Botcha said the assembly will discuss the high court's verdict on Amaravati during the current session.
"The Constitution has categorically stated that legislature has its own right and competency to enact laws. Judiciary is there to review if the laws are not in accordance with the Constitution. If someone says that legislature has no authority to law, it is a debatable issue. We will discuss all the issues in the assembly," he said.
Reiterating that the Parliament passed the AP Reorganisation Act without identifying the capital city for Andhra Pradesh, he said both states were mandated to utilise Hyderabad as joint capital for a decade and AP is entitled to continue its administration from Hyderabad till 2024.
He further said that the Centre constituted a five-member expert committee headed by KC
Sivaramakrishnan
to pick a site for the state's new capital and advised the state government to take a final call with regard to the capital city based on the committee's recommendations.
"Surprisingly, the previous TDP government ignored the Sivaramakrishnan committee report and constituted its own committee headed by then then municipal administration minister P Narayana. Naidu took the decision to set up the capital city in Amaravati to suit his own real estate agenda. It was not decided keeping in view the interests of 5 crore population of AP," alleged Botcha, while adding that Naidu also hurriedly moved to Amaravati without readying even basic infrastructure after he was caught in the vote-for-cash scandal.