Infrastructure and Development – Case of Amaravati Capital City
The workshop aims to explore the environmental, economic, legal, political, cultural and social implications of Amaravati Capital City project in Andhra Pradesh. This pipeline project of AIIB and World Bank is an environmental category A project and has garnered much attention in the country owing to the massive land acquisition and ‘voluntary land pooling’ scheme [LPS]
Chair: Meera Sanghamitra
Speakers: Dr. C. Ramachandraiah, Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Elizabeth Summers, BIC-USA, Mallela Seshagiri Rao: Capital Region Farmers Federation, Andhra Pradesh, Meera Sanghamitra, National Alliance of Peoples Movement, Tani Merlin Alex, Centre for Financial Accountability (CFA)
As a part of the Peoples’ Convention on Infrastructure Financing, this workshop on ‘Infrastructure and Development – Case of Amravati Capital City’ is being co-organised with the National Alliance of People’s Movements and BIC-USA at the YWCA, Mumbai.
Background
The Third Annual Governors Meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank [AIIB] will be held in Mumbai, India from 24-25 June 2018. This two-year-old multilateral bank is investing in all major sectors, including energy, without robust policies on environmental-social safeguards, transparent public disclosure and an accountability/complaint handling mechanism. Out of the total 24 projects, it has financed, USD 4.4 billion has already been approved. India is the biggest recipient from AIIB with more than 1.2 billion USD supporting about six projects including Transmission lines, Capital City Development at Amravati, rural roads etc with another 1 billion USD in proposed projects.
These data are but a few from among the many that come out periodically which, we are aware, will straightaway affect our democratic systems, land, water, forests, food, livelihoods, structures and the very air we breathe on a daily basis. All these raise our concerns to an alarming level that we are forced to reflect and act on the rapid ‘reforms’ which happen in the guise of development. Unlike World Bank and ADB who claim their development agenda in the name of reduction in poverty and inequality, AIIB never conceals their huge interests in infrastructure financing.
Peoples’ Convention on Infrastructure Financing – A Response to AIIB (Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank) Annual Meeting is the coming together of various groups, on June 21-23, 2018, working towards a just and equitable society, threatened by the massive infrastructure push resulting in displacement and dispossession of the marginalized and destruction of natural resources, on which their livelihoods depend.
AIIB – A Sneak Peek into Challenges