The Hindu: Vijaywada: Thursday,
August 04, 2016.
The outright
rejection of the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan committee on the
construction of the capital city of Andhra Pradesh came in for severe criticism
by M.G. Devasahayam who was a former IAS officer of the 2nd phase construction
of Chandigarh city in the 1950s.
The bid
submitted by the Ascendas-Singbridge-led consortium was not unsolicited. It
should have been an unsolicited or a suo motu proposal but it was not, which
makes the developer agreement that the GoAP had signed void ab initio (from the
beginning), he asserted.
Addressing a
seminar on ‘Construction of Amaravati - the consequences of Swiss Challenge’
organised by the Tax Payers’ Association here on Wednesday, Mr. Devasahayam
said the Singapore companies had sought a ‘State guarantee’ for their stakes
against the norms.
Amaravati
does not require more than 6,000 acres of land and it should have been planned
at a place where a large-scale dislocation of agricultural activity could be
avoided. Unfortunately, the capital city project has already dealt a severe
blow to horticulture in 29 villages. “The Government of AP (GoAP) has blatantly
violated all laws right from the selection of the place to awarding the works
to a foreign consortium and inviting counter proposals through the Swiss
Challenge system. The Krishna delta, which is one of the finest I have seen, is
going to be destroyed unless the government takes corrective action at least
now. Otherwise, people are going to face a major crisis,” he added.
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