BRICK-MANSIONS-THE-FOUNDATION-OF-AMARAVATHI
Cesar
Chavez once said, “We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget
about progress and prosperity for our community... Our ambitions must be broad
enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for
our own.”
2nd
June 2014 was announced as the ''appointed
day'' for the new State’s formation according to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. This was the initiation for the Andhra Pradesh government
to start the backbreaking work to build the state from the scratch.
In the beginning it was decided that Hyderabad would be the
capital for both states (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) for coming 10 years. But
soon there was a change of plan. The government had decided to choose Amaravati
as the capital of Andhra Pradesh.
The cordial relations with Singapore helped
the state in getting the core (seed) capital plan that was presented to the
Chief Minister on inauguration day (22nd October, on the day of Dussera) . This
plan will cover 16.7 sq km. This area will be home to 3 lakh residents; it is
expected to generate 7 lakh jobs in numerous sectors including the government.
There will be a network of 12km of metro, 15km of Bus
Rapid Transit systems, 7km of downtown roads, 26km of arterial and sub-arterial
roads and 53km of collector roads.
Amaravati is said to be the commixture of ‘Navratnas’- knowledge city, financial city, health city, tourism city,
government city, sports city, electronics city, justice city and education
city. Every religion and faith was involved in the historic event, the
inaugural ceremony held on Dussera Day,
2015. The soil and water from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Vaishnodevi Temple
and Ajmer Dargah were collected.
To take
things in a creative direction, the government has initiated an ‘e-brick’
scheme called ‘My brick, My Amaravati’ where, a person can contribute rupees 10
per digital brick and have his or her name engraved on it. All those who subscribe to these digital bricks, the name of the
subscriber will be registered. One can buy these bricks by paying online
through debit, credit cards and net banking facility. Most of the donations
have come from outside India. Already the employees of CRDA have contributed a
part of their salaries for the development of Amaravati.
Simultaneously, the state is also
implementing the land pooling approach. Now, what is land pooling?
In this system the land owners of their
own accord hand over the ownership rights to a single agency or government
body. The agency then develops the area acquired. Once this is done, it returns
a portion of land back to the owner. So far the land owners have agreed to give
31000 acres of 33000 acres required for the development of the state. The rest
will be acquired through land acquisition.
One of the big challenges faced by the
chief minister is the finances. We need at least 20000 cr to build the capital
but the centre has sanctioned only 1500 cr so far. They promised more after
they get to see the final draft.
In conclusion, we can try and follow
the words of Lao Tzu “Of all that is good,
sublimity is supreme. Succeeding is the coming together of all that is
beautiful. Furtherance is the agreement of all that is just. Perseverance is
the foundation of all actions.”
Ms. Akansha Udandravu, BBM Second Year