CPI(M) capital region committee convener Ch. Babu Rao said the YSR Congress (YSRC) and BJP have together cheated people, particularly farmers, by first promising them that the capital would remain in Amaravati and now indulging in politics of expediency in the guise of decentralisation.

Participating in protests against the Governor’s nod to the Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions and CRDA Repeal Bills on the BRTS road here on Saturday, Mr. Babu Rao said the YSRC, TDP and BJP had arrived at a consensus on Amaravati on the floor of the Legislative Assembly and each one of them went about implementing their secretive agendas, leading to the breaking up of the capital.

He pointed out that the then Leader of the Opposition Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had endorsed the proposal to develop Amaravati as a greenfield capital city.

‘Arbitrary and undemocratic’

The manner in which the Bills were passed in the Assembly and the Governor gave them his assent was arbitrary and undemocratic, he said, seeking to know whether the future governments would keep the ‘three capitals’ intact.

He said if the present government was convinced of massive irregularities having taken place in Amaravati, it should have booked criminal cases and punished the guilty, instead of bringing whatever development happened in the last five years to a naught.

He alleged that the BJP has betrayed the North Andhra and Rayalaseema regions by failing in its duty to secure a financial package for the development of the backward regions on the lines of what had been given to the Bundelkhand region spread across Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.