Centre to bring Amaravati artefacts from London

Mr Venkaiah said that in 1859 the British government shifted 75 valuable monuments to British museum at London. He ridiculed that British robbed Indian and the Indian culture representing monuments.

The Union minister said that he will take the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi about initiating action for bringing back Amaravati sculptures from British museum. He said that he had already spoke to Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in this regard.

The Union minister said that Andhras history is very ancient. He said that Prachi Buddhist Stupha recognised as the oldest Stupha but the history reveals Amaravati Mahasthupa as the most ancient and old Stupha.

He said that said that the Acharya Nagarjuna University was started by the government in the memory of Acharya Nagarjunudu between Vijayawada-Guntur which is the only state university in the Capital region.

Mr. Naidu said that after Buddhism, Shaivism flourished in Amaravati and Vijayanagara king Krishna Devaraya visited and offered donations for the ancient Amaraling-eswara temple on the banks of Krishna river at old Amaravati.

He claimed that Amaravati is the best name for new capital of AP and asserted on the need of developing and linking of old Amaravati with new capital. He said that he had asked the CM to link the new and old Amaravati which reflects the rich tradition of Telugus.

Mr. Naidu said that Dharani Kota fort, Amaravati pond, Mahachaitya stupa, ASI museum, Ama-ralingeswara temple, Kalachakra museum, Buddhist interpretation center, Dhyana Buddha and Zamindar bungalow will be modernised and all the linking roads to Amaravati would be developed under HRIDAY and PRASAD schemes.

The Union minister also added that the heritage park would be developed in the next phase with historical monuments. He said Rs 3.69 crore for Amaralingeswara temple development, '99.37 lakh for Dhyana Buddha and rest of the funds would be used for other development works in the capital region.