Ex-IAS officer asks PM not to lay stone for AP capital

Hyderabad, Oct 12:Former Union Energy Secretary and environmentalist EAS Sarma has asked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to lay the foundation stone for AP capital. EAS Sarma has written a letter to Modi asking him not to attend the event scheduled to be held on October 22. According to Sarma, the construction of capital city in the present location would only benefit realtors. The capital city project will disrupt agriculture over large stretches of fertile land and it is yet to get statutory clearances, he stated in the letter. The ex-IAS officer alleged people of North Andhra and Rayalaseema are unhappy over the huge expenditure being incurred on the grandiose capital city project. Stating that he was associated with the formation of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand, Sarma said that plans to construct a large capital at one place in the digitalisation era is uneconomical.