Students, under the banner of the Andhra Pradesh Vidyarthi Joint Action Committee (APVJAC), have urged the Union government to enact a law making Hyderabad the joint capital of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for 30 more years.
The students, who met under the leadership of APVJAC State president R. Jagadeesh here on Sunday, said that Andhra Pradesh would remain a State without a full-fledged capital after 2024.
The youth of the State would face a bleak future as no meaningful development was be possible in the next 50 years without handholding from the Centre, they said.
‘No capital’
The world-class capital city mooted by the Telugu Desam Party government had not seen the light of the day, as also the three capitals proposed by the YSR Congress Party government, lamented the students, who had been in the forefront of the Samaikhyandhra movement.
It was unfortunate that the unified Andhra Pradesh that had been developed over the years jointly with the contributions of the people from different parts of the State after its bifurcation from the composite Madras Presidency, was divided without providing a capital city for the residuary State, they said.
Huge debt
Saddled with a huge debt, the Andhra Pradesh government was not in a position to develop even one capital city, leave alone the three capital cities as stated by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, they observed.
In the present situation, Hyderabad should be declared the joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana till 2054, they demanded.
‘No special status’
The YSRCP, which had won a majority of the MP seats in the State in 2019 by promising to secure Special Category Status for Andhra Pradesh, had failed to take up the issue effectively in Parliament even as the Centre meted out a raw deal to the State by not fulfilling the promises it had made at the time of bifurcation. Not much had been done on promises such as establishing a steel plant, ports and railway zone, they alleged.
Besides, the string of educational institutions established in the State by the Centre were struggling as they were starved of funds, they charged.
