Capital talk: Locals see conspiracy

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, May 14, 2014: Locals are fuming at the reports emerging that, the expert committee appointed by the union government to identify suitable city as capital for successor state of Andhra Pradesh, has ruled out Vizag due to the presence of naval base in the close proximity.

The members of Sivaramakrishnan committee, during their visit to Vizag on last Saturday for firsthand assessment also held a meeting with the officials from the Eastern Naval Command (ENC).  “The committee members already had information with them on various issues from the state government. They have come prepared with around 140 proforma on various issues. They also held a closed door meeting with the ENC officials where local officials were also not allowed to attend it. Not sure what transpired between the ENC officials and Committee members,” said a top bureaucrat of Vizag.

Highly placed sources, in the ENC pointed that, there were no such objections raised by them on setting up capital in Vizag. They have also quoted the example of Mumbai having western naval command being the capital of Maharshtra.

“There is a well orchestrated conspiracy to deprive Vizag, the jewel of the east coast, of its legitimate due in the event of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. A section of top political leaders, capitalists and lobbyists have hatched a conspiracy by forming a group to undermine the chances of locating capital in Vizag. Various groups which have been working against interests of North Andhra in general and Visakhapatnam in particular has stepped up misinformation campaign against advantages of the city though the fact that Visakhapatnam emerged has top contender for capital in the recent survey initiated at national level. This is the high time to counter this Goebbels propaganda to keep chances Vizag as capital alive, said DVT Ganesh of Vizag citizen’s forum.

In the race for the capital of the state, Vizag and Vijayawada stood out to be possible final contenders.

A study conducted by, Delhi based Innovative Transport Solutions (iTrans), an urban transport consultancy, formerly an incubation unit in the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT Delhi), in association with a local NGO Vaada Foundation found that these two cities have much better existing infrastructure and have the potential to take in more growth over the future.  iTrans has experts from IIT Delhi.

Vizag, Vijayawada, Guntur, Kurnool and Ongole were assessed by the group for three months and studied the aspects of - existing population and city area, presence of a thriving economy, and regional connectivity i.e. air, rail and road connectivity.

“What we lack here in Vizag is strong leadership and political will to fight for the city. Vizag also has abundant land available. The argument of Vizag is on the one corner of the state is simply absurd.  Capital cities like Trivandrum, Banglore, Chennai, Jaipur, Gandhinagar and Mumbai are all on the one corner in their respective states,” said O Naresh Kumar of Vizag Development Council (VDC)