Cabinet resolves to urge Centre to declare Amaravati as ‘sole Capital’ of Andhra Pradesh

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet that met on Thursday with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in the Chair passed a resolution to request the Central government to declare and notify Amaravati as the “sole Capital City of Andhra Pradesh” by inserting Sub-Section (3) to Section 5 of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014 as per the advice of the Full Bench of the A.P. High Court contained in its order dated March 3, 2022, and send it to the Legislative Assembly for approval on March 28.

The resolution would then be forwarded to the Union government seeking Parliamentary nod.

The Cabinet decided to implement the High Court judgment in its letter and spirit and, more importantly, to withdraw the Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) that had been filed in the Supreme Court against the High Court judgment, as the government had apprised the Apex court through an affidavit in December 2024 that it “firmly concluded Amaravati as the Capital” and was accordingly taking up development activity as per the extant master plan with a target to complete it in three years.

The Cabinet also reiterated that it would fulfil the promises made to the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS) beneficiaries (farmers) in Amaravati and recognised them as “partners” in the capital city building process, while requesting the Union of India (UoI) to notify Amaravati as the Capital of Andhra Pradesh in the Official Gazette (of UoI) and also to incorporate the same in the Survey of India map.

The Cabinet observed that the relevant sections of the Reorganisation Act (a Central Act) clearly indicated that only a single Capital was envisaged and the same had been upheld by the Full Bench of the High Court that was headed by then Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justices M. Satyanarayana Murthy and D.V.S.S. Somayajulu.