Vizag, Kurnool likely to be ruled out as Andhra Pradesh’s capital

Hyderabad: State officials have been racing against time to complete the ground preparation for division of state into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

While all the 15 sub committees on different subjects had held meetings and started preliminary exercise, the Chief Secretary Dr P K Mohanty wanted a few important subjects like employees allotment, assets and liabilities division to be brought to a shape by end of March.

Union Home Secretary Mr Anil Goswami and senior central officials will have a two-day review on the progress of the division process with state officials from Tuesday.

Mr Goswami will also call on Governor Mr E.S.L.Narasimhan on his first visit to take stock of division process.

“It is such a laborious exercise that all the bureaucrats and staff have been working for extra hours and on holidays also,” said a top official. The State Reorganisation Cell, which will act as a nodal agency has been strengthened to expedite the process, he added.

Meanwhile, the Directorate of Town and Country Planning submitted a presentation to the sub committee on new capital for Andhra Pradesh.

The officials studied the locations of Visakhapatnam, Kurnool, Donakonda in Prakasam district, Hanuman Junction in Krishna district and Nagarjunasagar in Guntur district.

The preliminary report suggested that Visakhapatnam, Kurnool and Donakonda will have greater disadvantages. “For instance, Visakhapatnam will have linear development because of geographical disadvantages. Kurnool will face problem of inundation and Donakonda is backward,” said a senior official.

The DTCP officials preferred Nagarjunasagar because it is centrally located, will have plenty of drinking water and has got good connectivity. The existing runway is in a good condition.

It also gave positive report about Hanmakonda Junction-Nuziveedu stretch because of its proximity to Gannavaram airport, availability of huge tracts of government land and good road and rail connectivity.

The sub committee on employees division also gathered data of majority employees and prepared the ground for the Kamalanathan committee to start its work. The division process will deal with 50,000 odd employees out of whom about five to six thousand will have to be disturbed.

Mr Kamalanathan already made it clear that employees would be given option to select the cadre of either of the states.