A cold war of sorts is said to be brewing between Andhra Pradesh Municipal Administration Minister P Narayana and Union Minister of State for Rural Development Pemmasani Chandrasekhar over matters relating to the ongoing development works in Amaravati capital city.
It may be mentioned that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had constituted a three-member committee on Amaravati issues a few months ago, comprising Pemmasani, Narayana and Tadikonda MLA Tenali Sravan Kumar.
The committee was assigned the task of fast-tracking grievance resolution and infrastructure development for farmers in the capital region.
Initially, the committee did a good job in attending to farmers’ issues related to the registration of returnable plots and resolving matters pertaining to grama kanthams, or village habitations.
Sources said Naidu wanted Pemmasani to play a more visible role in Amaravati development activities, especially in improving outreach among farmers and stakeholders in the capital region, at a time when concerns were being raised over public perceptions of the government’s handling of certain aspects of the project.
For a brief period, Pemmasani actively participated in review meetings and field visits related to the capital project, drawing attention from both political observers and local residents.
Subsequently, however, Narayana is said to have become unhappy with Pemmasani’s interference in Amaravati capital works, particularly with regard to the engagement of contractors and additional land pooling for Amaravati Phase-2.
For the last few weeks, Pemmasani has virtually stopped visiting Amaravati and has stepped back from overseeing capital-related activities. This has led to speculation over whether he is being gradually sidelined from the process.
Officials, too, are reportedly giving more importance to Narayana than to Pemmasani or Sravan Kumar. Most major decisions relating to capital works continue to be routed through Narayana’s office.
Narayana wields considerable influence over the planning and execution of capital-region projects and apparently enjoys the strong backing of Chief Minister Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh in taking crucial decisions.
According to reports in media circles, Naidu has asked Pemmasani to leave the day-to-day oversight of capital works to Narayana. This has led to the Union minister staying away from Amaravati capital works in recent times, sources said.
