World Bank drops $300 million in funding for Amaravati Capital City project

Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu’s capital project of Amaravati suffered a setback Thursday as the World Bank has decided to pull out of the $300 million (Rs 2,065 crore) participation.

The World Bank in its website said the project is ‘dropped’, without elaborating on the reasons for its decision.

“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,” Mallela Sheshagiri Rao, a lawyer who represented Capital Region Farmers Federation 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.

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.

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.