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With the ongoing protest at Amaravati entering its 20th day, the protesters on 6 January, led a huge march covering a distance of about 10 km from the Thullur village to Mandadam. Protesters have been camped at multiples sites at the villages of Thullur, Mandadam and Velagapudi, in close proximity to the secretariat, ever since Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy announced the proposal to shift the administrative capital to Visakhapatnam on 17 December.
While the expert committee constituted by the government, as well as the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) roped in to study the issue of the capital at Amaravati have both recommended the relocation of the capital, the final decision has been deferred to a High Powered Committee which is expected to announce its decision in about two weeks.
For the past 20 days, protesters have been employing various forms of protest to bring attention to the issue, including drawing rangolis and writing ‘mercy killing’ petitions to the President. On Monday, the Amaravati JAC reportedly called for colleges and schools in Guntur to be closed to protest the three capital proposal.
Former Chief Minister and TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, who had proposed to set up the capital in Amaravati on a massive scale, called for the people of all districts of Andhra Pradesh to stand in support of the people of the 29 Amaravati villages who had contributed land for the capital, expecting developed plots in return.
TDP Chief Naidu was referring to the reported contributions from some of the women protestors who gave up their gold ornaments to fund the JAC.
(Published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
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