What’s Behind Naidu’s Vow to Rebuild Amaravati?

Amaravati: TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu has vowed to resume building the Amaravati capital in the TDP-BJP-JanaSena alliance’s 2024 Assembly poll manifesto. To realise this, the TDP led government needs Rs 1 lakh crore. Considering the state budget, it will take 20 years for the construction of infrastructure required for the capital city. Even if you embark on the ambitious construction project, the state’s revenue will not increase, however, it will likely prove profitable to Naidu and his friends who may have large tracts of lands due to soaring real estate business.

In a recent Prajagalam public meeting, the opposition leader claimed that the prices of land were more when his party was in power but now there is slump in the real estate business in the capital region. 

He said the former government had drawn up a plan to build a 185-km long Amaravati Outer Ring Road, however, the YSRCP ruined his plans after coming to power in the state in the 2019 elections. He has promised to resume the construction of the capital city if his party is elected to power in the 2024 Assembly polls.

Does that mean the opposition leader is planning to empty the state coffers so he and his friends can make profits from the real estate business through benami purchases? It is alleged that the opposition leader made Rs 1,000 crore in the name of building a Hitech City in Hyderabad with the help of benami associates like Murali Mohan Rao. And, now Naidu has set his eyes on Amaravati to repeat the money making projects. 

The opposition leader who had taken the oath of office and secret on June 8, 2014 leaked the policy formulations of the State in advance to private entities related to him. The leaked information included details like site and location of infrastructural projects. The TDO leaders and individuals known to him were involved in insider trading to purchase agricultural lands from the poor farmers at cheaper rates. 

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