Ground breaking ceremony of the new Andhra Pradesh capital Amarvati was held at Tullur mandal of Guntur District amid chanting of vedic mantras and elaborate rituals by the Pundits.
The religious ceremony with the chanting of the hymns started at 3 am and continued till the auspicious hour of 8-49 am when the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his wife Bhuvaneswari performed the Bhumi Puja or the land worship at a pit. Apart from Naidu’s son N lokesh, union ministers Nirmala Sitaraman, Ashok Gajapati Raju and YS Chowdary, Speaker of Andhra Pradesh Kodela Siva Prasad Rao and several state ministers also attended the ceremony. Film star and Telugu Desam MlA N Balakrishna was also cynosure of all eyes. Thousands of people from surrounding villages attended the function.
The occasion was also marked by a light drizzle which excited the people harassed for a long time by the oppressive heat wave. Clad in a traditional dress of Dhoti and a shirt with a saffron and white color Khandva (shoulder cloth) around him Naidu performed some masonry work marking the laying of foundation stone of the new capital.
No prominent leader of any other party was invited to the ceremony evoking a sharp reaction from the main opposition YSR Congress Party. It announced that it will move a breach of privilege motion for ignoring the leader of opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
Speaking on the occasion Chandrababu Naidu said that Amarvati will built in to a beautiful city which will not only be a political and financial capital but also a tourist attraction. “Amaravati will be more grand and spacious than Singapore with ring roads around the city”, he said. Singapore is preparing the master plan for the proposed capital to come up an area of 53000 acres. He thanked the farmers who handed over their lands for the proposed capital.
Union Minister Nirmala Sitaraman said that the Central Government will extend full support to the construction of the new capital and there was no need for any doubts about it.