Among all the states in the country, the two Telugu states are flying high –for all right reasons. While Hyderabad is getting decked up for the three-day Global Entrepreneurship Summit from November 28, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu got a double booster shot with two good news. First, once again, he managed to rope in Bill Gates for the bifurcated state’s development, this time in the fields of agriculture, health and education, the areas in which the Bill Gates-Melinda Foundation is working.
More important than reviving his old ties with Gates when he was at the helm of Microsoft, is the National Green Tribunal’s green signal to building the capital city Amaravati. Since Chandrababu started planning his dream city, he has been facing various hurdles – from acquiring thousands of acres of fertile land from farmers to raising funds for the ‘best capital city in the world.’
When he was about to resolve the twin problems, the Chief Minister had to face a roadblock from an unexpected quarter – environmentalists. It all began in 2015 when a retired journalist from Vijayawada, P Srimannarayana, filed a case raising environmental concerns. But it proved to be only a beginning as more people and organizations had joined to stop Amaravati from taking shape over environmental and ecological issues. One of these is, the capital that is planned is on Krishna River flood basin and the soil is loose. Hence the mega structures conceived as part of Amaravati will sink. Despite many assurances given by the Chief Minister about protecting the environment and plains from flooding, the issue had gone to the National Green Tribunal for a final say. In fact, its verdict was eagerly awaited as many projects had been pending for want of NGT clearance.
On Friday, the Tribunal gave its green signal to the TDP government for going ahead with the Amaravati blueprint. However, it directed the AP government to scrupulously follow all green norms and abide by environment protection rules and regulations. There will also be a committee to supervise proper implementation of the Tribunal’s directives.
Thus Chandrababu could speed up plans for his dream capital with no major hurdle except funding. Those who are hesitating to invest in the capital region over environment objections can now move to the area. That should augur well for the Chief Minister who had recently concluded a US-Gulf trip wooing big businesses.
In Telangana, meanwhile, KCR is basking in the glare of global publicity over Ivanka Trump’s visit to Hyderabad for the Summit and Prime Minister Modi’s trip during which he will also inaugurate the Metro. The presence of two VVIP along with thousands of delegates from different countries and the high and mighty of India in Hyderabad for three days is considered more than a feather in KCR’s cap.
