Capital issue:Crucial council of ministers meeting on Jan 20

A crucial meeting of the Andhra Pradesh Council of Ministers which is likely to grant formal approval to the government's plans on the state capital will be held on January 20 as scheduled and not on Saturday, official sources said. Hours after the sources said the meeting had been advanced to Saturday 3 PM, the Chief Minister's Office late on Friday night clarified it would be held as scheduled on January 20.

The cabinet is expected to grant approval based on the recommendations made by the High-Powered Committee of ministers and bureaucrats. The panel submitted its report to the Chief Minister at a meeting here on Friday afternoon, a minister, who did not wish to be quoted, confirmed.

As per the latest schedule, the Cabinet is to meet on January 20, hours before the start of the three-day extended winter session of the Legislature, to approve the report of the HPC on "distributed capital functions". The HPC members on Friday conferred with Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and discussed a host of issues related to the government's plan to go in for distributed capital functions.

They gave a PowerPoint presentation to the Chief Minister on the panel's recommendations, upon 'analyzing' the reports of the six-member experts committee and the Boston Consulting Group on the capital issue. The recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee, constituted by the Centre in 2014 post-bifurcation, which the HPC took into consideration while drafting its report, were also discussed at the meeting with the Chief Minister, the sources added.

The HPC held three meetings and deliberated on the recommendations of the experts committee, the BCG and the Sivaramakrishnan Committee. "We will go ahead with our plan in tune with the peoples aspirations. The Chief Minister told us all steps will be taken for the benefit of the farmers of Amaravati region who gave up  their lands for the capital.

He suggested that a better package be given to the farmers," Municipal Minister Botsa Satyanarayana told reporters after the meeting. The Minister said they had discussed in detail the steps needed to protect the farmers' interests. "Ours is a farmers' friendly government and we will take decisions accordingly. At the same time, we are also committed to the equitable development of all 13 districts of the state," Botsa said.

The Minister feigned ignorance when asked about the move to scrap the AP Capital Region Development Authority Act, in the wake of the plan to shift the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam. The HPC report will be placed in the Legislature during the extended winter session for discussion upon which the government is expected to come out with its final decision on the state capital issue. The Chief Minister had on December 17 told the Legislative Assembly that the state could have "three capitals", executive capital in the port city Visakhapatnam, legislative capital in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool, spread across the three regions of Andhra Pradesh.