Jagan's out-of-the-box solution

Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has taken one of the boldest decisions in recent times by declaring a resolve to create three capitals for the state — a legislative capital with its current Assembly located in Amaravati, a new executive capital in Visakhapatnam on the coast, where the power and seat of government would be located, and a judiciary capital in Kurnool, where the new high court in the state would be created.

Building on yet another promise listed in the YSRC Party manifesto before the election to decentralise and distribute power and seats of government, aligning them with sub-regional aspirations, and ensuring that north Andhra and coastal regions as well as the arid, rocky Rayalaseema in the heartland all have development drivers, Mr Reddy has scored a political winner. He has also partially corrected and undone the massive underhand insider trading resorted to by the previous N. Chandrababu Naidu government that had made Amaravati the capital for nefarious reasons with malafide motives.

Mr Reddy has shown great maturity in first selling the idea to the powerful duo at the Centre and getting their tactical buy-in before making a breaking news announcement in the last hour of the Assembly session. The public demand for a fourth capital, a devotion capital in Tirupati, one of the holiest pilgrimage sites in the country, deserves positive consideration — and could help the young chief minister establish his image further as a statesman.

However, funding the three capitals and shuffling the government between two of them each year, during different months, would be herculean. The Opposition too would build an accentuating attack against the idea as inevitable executional flaws emerge. But let nothing deter the young CM and the people from a great idea and a model, with lessons for other states, and even the country.