Amaravati: Putting an end to the row of three capitals, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday announced that the state will have only one capital- Amaravati.

The state cabinet has decided to withdraw the three capital bill, which was placed before the Assembly last year. Advocate General S. Sriram informed the High Court about the Chief Minister’s decision to have only one capital for Andhra Pradesh.

For administrative purposes, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy announced three capitals for the state. But his decision has been opposed by all sections of society. Three capital concepts create lot of confusion and it would bring more financial burden to the state exchequer, opposed by the political parties and people.

Three capitals were proposed for the state, Amaravati a legislative capital, Visakhapatnam an executive one and Kurnool the judicial capital.

Last year, the Union Home Ministry had informed the Andhra Pradesh High Court that the capital city of the state is a matter to be decided by the state government and added that the Centre had no role in it.

In a case between petitioner Potluri Srinivasa Rao and respondents Union of India and others, filed in 2018, under-secretary in the Union Home Ministry Lalita T. Hedaoo filed a counter affidavit in the AP High Court, Deccan Chronicle reported.

In the counter-affidavit, the Centre has mentioned that under Section 6 of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the Union Government had constituted an expert committee on March 28, 2014, under the chairmanship of K.C. Sivaramakrishnan to study alternatives for a new capital for the state of Andhra Pradesh.

The panel submitted its report on August 30 of the same year, which was sent to the AP government two days later on September 1. The affidavit mentioned that the state government issued an order dated April 23, 2015, notifying the capital city to be named as ‘Amaravati’. It further said that ‘The capital city of a state is decided by the respective state government. The central government has no role in it.”

AP government filed the affidavit stating that through Andhra Pradesh Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act, 2020 which was published in the state gazette notification on 31/07/2020, has provided that there shall be three seats of governance in the state and they are to be called as capitals. Accordingly, Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Area to be called as ‘Legislative Capital’, Visakhapatnam Metropolitan Region Development Area to be called as ‘Executive Capital’ and Kurnool Urban Development Area to be called as ‘Judicial Capital.’

Meanwhile, Andhra Pradesh BJP leader YS Chowdary last week said that his party supports the demand of declaring Amravati as the capital city of Andhra Pradesh.

"On behalf of BJP, we have passed a resolution for supporting Amravati as the capital of Andhra Pradesh. YSRCP government announced that there will be three capitals of the state without having any authority to do so. In order to support the local farmers who gave land for the capital development, BJP supports them and will see that capital remains in Amravati," said Chowdary.

 "We demand from CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy that Amaravati shall be continued as the capital as per the unanimous decision on the Assembly floor by all the parties prior to 2019. We express our open support for farmers and respect their agreements with the State Government for new capital construction at Amaravati," he added.