The Andhra Pradesh government - appointed high-level sub-committee of officials has stressed that the new capital to Seemandhra should be acceptable to all areas of the region and that it should help for equal development of all the areas.

The committee has also opined that the new Seemandhra capital should be modelled on the working style of State capitals of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir, where administration has been decentralised.

These three states hold assembly sessions not only in their state capitals, but also in their secondary or alternative main cities.

Every year, Maharashtra holds its one phase of assembly sessions in Nagpur, besides its capital city, Mumbai. Whereas, Karnataka holds its assembly sessions in Belgaum, besides in Bangalore. Similarly, Jammu and Kashmir also holds its legislature assembly meets in both Srinagar and Jammu cities.

Considering the new Semandhra capital as a sensitive issue, the sub-committee is looking at all angles that could be amicable to all areas of the region. 

The State sub-committee's meeting, presided by SK Joshi, Chief Secretary of the State Municipal Administration, has decided on 10  March 2014, to prepare a report and submit it to the Centre by next April end to enable it to take a quick desicion on establishing new capital for Seemandhra, say media reports. All other officials concerned had attended the meeting.   

The State sub-committee, before preparing its report, is to visit and study administration structure in the capitals of newly formed states such as Uttarakhand, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand. It will also visit Gujarat's capital city Gandhinagar and Chandigarh, joint capital of Punjab and Haryana.  

The sub-committee is of the view that State High Court/Bench should be established in other main cities of Seemandhra region, besides the new capital city (yet to be decided), of the remnant state for the convenience of people.

High-level educational institutions like IIT, IIM should be established equally in all areas of the Seemandhra. 

The Centre is yet to appoint an expert committee to decide the new capital for the residual AP Seemandhra and such committee is likely to come into place once the Seemandhra state is formed. The State's sub-committee will submit its report to the expert committee. 

For now, the State sub-committee is of the firm view that the new capital should be established to satisfy people of all regions of Seemandhra. Besides constructing a new capital city for Semmandhra, parallel facilities for effective administration should be provided in all other areas of the residual AP state, the sub-committee has recommended.

To prepare its report, the State sub-committee is to take the help from expert city planners. 

The sub-committee is to study available facilities like airports, railway junctions, national highways in the proposed cities for the new Seemandhra capital.

The proposed cities are: Vijayawada, Tirupati, Nellore, Kurnool, Guntur, a place between East and West Godavari districts, Ongole and Visakhapatnam, the second largest city in united AP, after Hyderabad.

(Edited by Anu James)