Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s dream capital project of Amaravati suffered a setback Thursday as the World Bank has decided against funding $300 million for the purpose. The World Bank’s website shows the status of the project as ‘dropped’. On a loan sought by the former CM, the bank was considering lending $300 million for infrastructure development in the capital under the Amaravati Sustainable Capital City Development Project; Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project.
Several NGOs led by Capital Region Farmers Federation, and Narmada Bachao Andolan, Working Group on International Financial Institutions (WGonIFIs), Human Rights Forum, Andhra Pradesh, National Alliance of People’s Movements, and Centre for Financial Accountability have been opposing the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) regime’s plans to build the capital by acquiring land from farmers, and protested against development very near to the Krishna riverbank.
Based on several petitions by the NGOs, the World Bank had sought an inspection report on whether the then Andhra Pradesh Government had honoured all the commitments it made and whether the construction of the capital city followed all rules and regulations. The inspection report was submitted in January this year. The inspection was done on nearly 50 points but the report has not been made public.
Mallela Sheshagiri Rao, a lawyer who represented Capital Region Farmers Federation, said that the TDP Government misrepresented facts and made all kinds of promises to secure the loan. “None of the assurances and promises by then CM Chandrababu Naidu to farmers of the region were being fulfilled. Farmers in the capital region lost land and livelihood and spent sleepless nights. It was a four-year-long struggle and finally the people have won with the WB dropping the idea of funding this project,” Rao said.
“This should be a message to AP Government that they should first address the concerns of the people before seeking such loans. It is unfortunate that the WB is not making the inspection report public otherwise all the truth about how the previous government broke rules and dishonoured it commitment would have come out,” Rao said.
Environmental activists, farmer leaders, and civil society organisations opposed and criticised this project for building the city on the floodplains of river Krishna, diverting fertile farmlands and forests, displacing around 20,000 families, forcefully acquiring lands, and allegedly favouring contractors for the construction of the city. A complaint with the Inspection Panel (Independent accountability mechanism) of the World Bank has been filed by the affected communities in 2017 to investigate the project for violation of the World Bank’s safeguard policies. This complaint was under process and the Board of the World Bank was waiting for the recommendation on the eligibility of investigation from the Inspection Panel which was submitted this January.