12 November is the last date for people to submit their suggestions on Amaravati to the expert committee headed by former IAS officer  GN Rao. The committee was set up to work out the roadmap for the capital city of Andhra Pradesh as well as relook at the urban planning and possible relocation. As part of the exercise, the members of the committee have been hearing opinions of different stakeholders.

On Monday, they met farmers from Amaravati who had given their agricultural land as part of the land pooling arrangement mooted by the previous Telugu Desam government. They rooted for retaining Amaravati as the capital as considerable investment had gone into the project and taking it elsewhere would be a disruptive exercise. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for Amaravati in October 2015. (pic below)

The committee that has toured the state extensively since September when it was set up, is expected to take another couple of weeks to draft its report and submit it to the Andhra Pradesh government. It is for the government then to take a call on whether Amaravati will be retained as the capital city.

Earlier this month, there was a furore when in the newly released political map of India, Andhra Pradesh was the only state whose capital city was not mentioned. (Read story here)

A few months earlier, BJP MP TG Venkatesh had claimed that Jaganmohan Reddy is in favour of setting up four different capital cities in the four regions of Andhra Pradesh to ensure decentralised development.

Read here : What did Venkatesh say about Jagan plan on Amaravati