It will take a minimum five days from the date of receipt of the draft Bill on Telangana to convene a special session of the State Legislature to give its opinion on division of the State.
In such circumstances, the special session can be convened only after December 6, given the tight timelines proposed by the Centre. Much depends on when the Union Cabinet approves the A. P. States Reorganisation Bill and sends it to President Pranab Mukherjee.
Once cleared by the Union Cabinet, it would be referred to the President, who, in turn, would send it to the State Assembly for its opinion through the Governor. In the (unlikely) event that the Bill is approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, the Bill may reach the Raj Bhavan on or after December 2 at the earliest.
On receiving it, the Governor would, in the normal course, write to the Speaker advising him to send a note to the Chief Minister to convene the Legislature. In extraordinary circumstances, the Governor can invite the Chief Minister and the Speaker for consultations and take a decision on convening the special session. Interestingly, the present House is not yet prorogued.
Once this procedure is gone through, a bulletin would be issued by the Legislature to convene special sittings of both Houses.
According to the sources in the Legislature it would take a minimum of two days to send individual intimations to the members as mandated. “It is thus impossible to convene the session in a day’s notice. Moreover, given the tensions related to bifurcation, security arrangements have to be very tight and manpower drafted from the districts,” sources said.
“Without making all these arrangements, the special session cannot be convened,” they said hinting that the Legislature can hold its sittings only on or after December 7.
