Three capitals and the 1,631-day protest: what happened and what it left behind

The proposal

On 17 December 2019 the newly elected government floated decentralised development with three capitals: an executive capital at Visakhapatnam, a legislative capital at Amaravati and a judicial capital at Kurnool. A committee had suggested a decentralised model. The Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Act and the APCRDA Repeal Act received the Governor's assent on 31 July 2020.

The protest

Farmers in Mandadam, Thullur and Uddandarayunipalem began protesting on 18 December 2019, the day after the announcement, and the protest spread across the 29 habitations. Their case was simple: they had pooled fertile Krishna-bank land in 2015 against a promise of a capital city, and the returnable plots they were promised were worth little without one. The protest ran for 1,631 days and ended on 12 June 2024 when N. Chandrababu Naidu, sworn in that day, confirmed Amaravati as the capital.

Law and courts

• Petitions went to the High Court, which ordered status quo in 2020 and heard the matter over two years.
• On 22 November 2021 the government withdrew both Acts, saying it would bring a better law.
• On 3 March 2022 the High Court directed the state to develop Amaravati as the capital and to complete infrastructure in the LPS layouts, with time limits.
• Appeals reached the Supreme Court; the issue was then overtaken by the 2024 election result and the 2026 central Act.

What it left behind

Five years of stopped tenders, half-built housing towers and layouts without roads. In December 2025 the state still listed 7,628 pending plot registrations out of 61,793 registered, 4,929 landless families whose ₹5,000 pension had to be restored with arrears, and DPRs for basic amenities in 26 core villages that were only then being prepared. The current government's answer was a five-year extension of annuity and pension (August 2024), ₹3,859 crore for layout amenities (December 2024) and a monthly cycle of e-lotteries in 2026. Buyers should read that list as the to-do list it is.