Capital committee for AP in a week, says Jairam

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, March 3, 2014: The Union government will soon appoint an expert committee to identify a suitable city to be capital of the successor state of Andhra Pradesh. Besides, two more committees — one to bifurcate all-India services officers and another to divide other government staff among the two states — will also be appointed shortly.

Talking to reporters here on Monday, Union minister Mr Jairam Ramesh, who is a member of the Group of Ministers that worked on the bifurcation of the state, said that all the three committees would be appointed in a week as the Andhar Pradesh Reorganisation Bill has been notified after getting the assent of the President of India.

“The expert committee to identify a suitable city to be the capital of the successor state will be appointed in a couple of days. The committee will study various cities like Kurnool, Tirupati, Nellore, Ongole, Vizag among others, and submit its recommendations to the Union government. The Union government in consultation with the state government will decide the capital,” Mr Ramesh said, emphasising that the opinion of the government of the successor state will be important.

Land and water availability, and connectivity would be the main criteria when selecting the new capital. The Centre has also decided to de-notify any forest land if required. “Basically we need huge chunks of land like Naya Raipur where a new capital can be built,” he said.

Talking about the special economic package for seven districts of Rayalaseema and north coastal Andhra that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Ramesh said that both the regions will get around Rs. 11,000 crore like the Bundelkhand package.

On power allocation, the senior Congress leader said 85 percent will allotted as per the Gadgil formula of according to population and the remaining 15 percent as per the actual consumption.

Answering a query, the GoM member said that the tax sops as announced by Centre in Seemandhra are only applicable for new investments but not for the existing industries in the new successor state. He said, as per the tax incentives, new industries will have relief from, Income Tax, Value Added Tax (VAT), excise and other duties. The tax incentives will be for the next 10years.

 As per the special category status, the successor state would get an approximate funds of Rs 50,000 crs of which 90 percent would be grant and 10percent in the form of loan.

 Ramesh also felt that, an industrial corridor planned between, Vizag and Chennai on the lines Delhi-Mumbai corridor would attract at least Rs 1 lakh cr investments.

“The Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor has already attracted Rs 25,000 cr investments from Japan. Similarly, we are expecting Rs 1 lakh cr investments in the proposed Vizag-Chenani corridor which will stimulate industrial growth,” he said.