Three-capital row in AP: No signs of Amaravati farmers resuming Maha Padayatra any time soon

In its interim order, the limited the number of participants to 600 and capped the number of vehicles to four. The police were also told to issue ID cards to the farmers and to ensure that no provocative statements were made by any group.

The supporters of the padayatra could extend solidarity by standing on either side of the road, but should not join the farmers, the court ordered.

The farmers filed multiple petitions seeking a review of the order. On Wednesday, 16 November, the division bench of Chief Justice Prashanth Kumar Mishra and Justice Justice Somayajulu dismissed the petitions while upholding the earlier order.

“I’m not sure when we could resume the padayatra. It may take a month or two. We are also holding internal discussions to decide the future course of action,” A Siva Reddy, the convenor of Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi,  spearheading the Maha Padayatra, told South First.

The farmers took out the yatra on 12 September demanding the government to make Amaravati the only capital of Andhra Pradesh. The government has been pushing for three capitals: The judicial capital in Kurnool, the legislative capital in Amaravati and the executive capital in Visakhapatnam.

The high court had earlier directed to complete the padayatra in 60 days. The stipulated period ended on 12 November.

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Farmers seek extension

“We would have completed the yatra by now but for the disturbances created by the ruling party leaders and also the police excesses. Now that the stipulated period had expired, we have requested an extension. We appealed to the court to allow more participants so that they can walk in shifts,” Aluri Yugandhar, a committee member of the Amaravati Rajadhani Sameekarana Rythu Samakya, told South First.

The farmers took out the Maha Padayatra from Amaravati to Arasavelli in the Srikakulam district raising the slogan, “Build Amaravati, Save Andhra Pradesh.” The yatra was to pass through 16 districts before reaching its destination on 11 November.

Before halting, the yatra passed through Guntur, NTR, Krishna, Eluru, West Godavari, Kakinada and Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema districts. The farmers from 29 villages had handed over to the government swathes of land to develop Amaravati as the state’s capital.

Supreme Court to hear petitions

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is set to hear on 28 November a clutch of petitions challenging the Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment holding that the Assembly state has no competence to enact a law to create more than one capital in the state.

On 3 March 2022, a high court division bench comprising Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justices M Satyanarayana Murthy and DVSS Somayajulu observed that the AP state legislature had no legislative competence to enact any law for shifting the three organs of the state.

The stay given by the high court earlier on shifting government offices from Amaravati to other parts of the state would also continue, the court ordered.

Six months later, on 17 September, the state government approached the Supreme Court challenging the lower court order.

After the farmers had launched their protest, two Joint Action Committees (JACs) in support of the three-capitals plan were formed in Kurnool and Visakhapatnam. The JACs were meant to counter the farmers.

The farmers had taken out a Maha Padayatra to Tirumala temple — from 1 November to 17 December 2021. The yatra, ‘Nyayasthanam to Devasthanam,’ had a grand finale in the temple town. TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, too, attended the closing ceremony.