of the vizagkakinada pcpir that is on the horizon that being the case if visakhapatnam is made the capital of seemandhra imagine the mindboggling additional pressure on water compounding the impending water crisis further another very important commodity in short supply is the land in the last one decade nearly 1500020000 acres of land around visakhapatnam have been given away to various sezs and industrial units the pcpir too is allotted another 250 square kilometers interestingly our policymakers have not left even the hills as most hills have been given away to film studios knowledge parks and hotels as one can see from the vandalism going on at every hill top and slope in and around the city in the last few decades land prices have shot up in the city as a result of vuda auctioning land the land under agriculture has shrunk drastically resulting in the vegetable prices reaching prohibitive levels today the common mans desire to own a roof above his head has become a pipe dream people have slowly started creeping up the hills and almost all the hills are encroached upon under the circumstances if the city is turned into a capital it would be well nigh impossible for the middle classes to find housing in and around the city the new capital will need a whole new secretariat buildings for a high court the two houses of legislature and a host of offices to accommodate the central and state government offices apart from housing for the entire staff where are they to be located if push comes to shove the government will have to resort to displacing farmers and agriculturists forcibly at high cost not only in terms of money but also loss of livelihoods and human rights violations at the best of times land acquisition is a painful process and causes a lot of heartache the new state certainly does not want to start on the wrong foot more painful would be the levels of congestion caused by the influx of people and vehicles that would descend on the city the pressure on land will result in public places in the city being gobbled up as it is the city has no playgrounds worth the name few open spaces and even fewer parks saving the space vacated by the old jail from commercialization was like fighting a battle a few concerned citizens had to knock the doors of the high court to save it gvmc is unable to provide civic services like sanitation drainage and slum rehabilitation in visakhapatnam believed to have one of the largest slum clusters in the state even in its present state with displacement of agriculturalists and new construction activity the slums will only grow and the pressure on the city will reach critical levels the only saving grace would be that the rush to hyderabad will decline so what we need more jobs and development nothing comes without a price we will pay the price to be