Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Amaravati's foundation ceremony next week.
There is a hitch in Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's grand plans for a
dazzling new capital Amaravati, which he hopes to inaugurate next week in a foundation ceremony to be
attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The national green tribunal or
NGT has red-lighted clearing of fields and construction work at the site where the new capital is being built till the state identifies and demarcates wetlands, flood-prone zones and gets environmental clearance.
The NGT had earlier this month ordered that the state must get all necessary permission before starting work on the
new capital.
Activists and rival parties have accused the Naidu government of taking over fertile land in the area by force. Opposition leader Jaganmohan Reddy said he will not attend the foundation ceremony and has alleged that the Chief Minister has violated environment norms.
The chief minister says farmers have "voluntarily" parted with the 33,000 acres of land for the new capital in the biggest land pooling exercise. A spokesperson of his Telugu Desam Party also said today that the state government has all the permissions it needs.
Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said in Delhi on Thursday that environment clearance has to come from the state.
Activists say they now plan to move the Supreme Court on Monday against the project and are hoping negative publicity around it will rob Mr Naidu's grand inauguration on Thursday, October 22, of some of its glitter.
In the run-up to the big day, pujas have begun across the state for the collection of water and mud from anthills from some 16,000 villages and Mr Naidu has appealed to citizens to buy e-bricks to help build the new capital. .
Amaravati was the historical capital of the Satavahana dynasty in second century AD. Mr Naidu says the new Amaravati will be a people's capital, a destination of opportunities and a city of the future.