The handing over of Secretariat blocks under the control of Andhra Pradesh government in Hyderabad to Telangana may end up as a long drawn affair unless both the States adopt a ‘give and take’ approach.
In the wake of Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao’s decision to build a modern Secretariat complex in the place of existing blocks, a formal Cabinet resolution was submitted to the Governor requesting him to talk to the AP Government for handing over its share of Secretariat blocks. The Governor orally broached the issue with AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu during his recent visit to Vijayawada and apparently got a positive inclination.
Cabinet opinion sought
Sources in AP Government said that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, who mostly had taken a conciliatory approach to resolving issues with the neighbouring Telugu State, sought to gauge the mood in the Polit Bureau meeting last week over the issue. Mr. Naidu will seek the opinion of his Cabinet colleagues on the issue in the Cabinet meeting next week. Sources however indicated that the decision to handover Secretariat blocks to Telangana Government will be weighed carefully. Informal parleys were initiated by some senior officials to discuss the pros and cons of handing over the Secretariat blocks to Telangana Government. The decision to handover the AP Secretariat blocks here at the earliest will certainly be linked to resolving the differences over the division of Schedule IX and X institutions. So far, the Telangana Government had taken an adamant stand on Schedule X institutions despite the Supreme Court’s directive in favour of AP on the division of assets of AP State Council for Higher Education on the basis of population ratio, sources added.
Issue of AP Bhavan
Even the AP Bhavan, a government entity in Delhi, was divided only on adhoc basis and the final division is pending as Telangana is not forthcoming, they added.
Sources said that a Cabinet sub committee may be assigned the task of preparing the modalities for handing over Secretariat blocks and list out the pending issues related to asset division of Schedule IX and X institutions.
Clarification sought
Meanwhile, AP sources said that the Secretariat blocks were divided between the two States prior to bifurcation under Section 8 (2) of State Reorganisation Act approved by the President and Governor allotted them as a special representative for a period of up to 10 years. Now, how could that order be repealed at the State Government level without approval of the Centre, was another question raised by some. The AP officials sought clarification from their Law Department.
At present only skeletal staff is functioning in AP Secretariat blocks in Hyderabad but the important record rooms are also located here for want of suitable space at Velagapudi.
