The tussle over the venue of Assembly budget session is creating confusion among the officers and staff of Andhra Pradesh government.
If the month long session were to be held at Amaravati or some other place a lot of arrangements need to be made to do the work related to budget session. Whether it is a rented premises or a government building, the session requires same personnel and equipment.
The speaker has to shift his entire administration with computers and printers to the new premises. And the speaker has to provide accommodation for the period of session for the staff and senior officials. From the government side, all departments have to shift not only all senior officials but also some staff as the session requires a lot of secretarial work. Temporary residential accommodation for the senior officers and staff need to be provided at the new venue. As the session is expected to commence in less than a month, there is not enough time to complete these arrangement.
With no clarity on the place of conduct of the ensuing budget session of Andhra Pradesh Assembly, officials of the State are in a dilemma and are even not able to make preparations for the session. The confusion was sparked by Speaker Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, who recently hinted at the possibility of holding the upcoming Assembly session at the new capital region.
During his recent visit to Vijayawada, Dr Rao even visited some private buildings including KU university to examine their suitability for holding the budget session there.
Interestingly, the Speaker did admit that change of venue would be a tedious task and requires a lot of coordination between various departments besides locating proper building to run the House.
But the opposition YSRC rubbished the idea of conducting the Assembly from rented premises. The party is ready boycott the session if the speaker were to go ahead on his proposal to conduct the session from a private building.
Almost all the officials are opposed to the idea of conducting the House outside Hyderabad when proper infrastructure is not available. ” Assembly is not a public meeting to be conducted for the entertainment of the people. For those who want to watch the proceedings, live telecast is available. State government should not take everything sentimentally and put huge burden on the taxpayers and cause hardship to officials and staff by conducting the house in wilderness,” opined a senior official.
Officials are waiting for the return of the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu from abroad to convey their opinions on the subject. Naidu is expected to take a decision on the matter. Mostly likely it will be placed before cabinet on Monday.
Speaker is very particular to conduct the House in Capital region and create history like the CM who shifted his set up to Vijayawada. But, the project has been a non-starter because of the problems involved. Even the proposal of symbolic conduct of the session in Andhra University has also become impracticable. AU played host to the first session Andhra state when it formed in November 1953. The then chief minister Prakasam Pantulu was very particular about the session in Vizag. But, his government fell within months after the session conducted in the conference hall of Andhra University.
Officials are of the opinion that the Speaker’s attempt to conduct the House in capital region will fizzle out.
