Draft T-Bill arrives: Chief minister, Digvijay discuss future course

Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday met with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh at the Lake View Guest House soon after the latter landed in Hyderabad in the afternoon, even as no official word came from either of the leaders on the timing of the debate in the state Legislative Assembly on the AP Reorganisation Bill.

Ending the wait, the draft Bill finally arrived on Thursday evening. Joint secretary in the Union home ministry S Suresh Kumar, who  flew from Delhi, handed over the copies of the Bill to state chief secretary PK Mohanty. The copies of the Bill are likely to be distributed to the members in the House on Friday.

The chief minister’s office, however, remained tight-lipped over Kiran Reddy’s meeting with Digvijay Singh. A few Telangana leaders, who met with Singh later in the evening, expressed confidence that the Bill would come up for discussion during the ongoing sessions.

In the light of the arrival of the draft Bill, Speaker N Manohar is expected to call for a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) again to include the debate on the Bill in the agenda of the ongoing session. With Saturday and Sunday being holidays, the members will have time to  study the Bill if the debate is taken up anytime after the Assembly reconvened on Monday.

In a couple of related developments, Congress legislators from the four Rayalaseema districts held a meeting separately to discuss on the ways to protect the interests of their region in the event of a bifurcation. They are expected to seek a special package for the Rayalaseema region as they feel that the state bifurcation would hurt their interests the most.

A group of Congress legislators from the coastal Andhra region met speaker N Manohar at his office and requested him to allow a resolution seeking to keep the state united, be tabled before the House. However, their action was seen as a move to deny any mileage for the YSR Congress Party, which had demanded that a similar resolution be introduced in the state Assembly.

They may also question any move to table the draft Bill in the House for initiating debate during the ongoing sessions as the President of India had given a six-week time for the state to give their comments. On the other side, Telangana leaders requested the Speaker to take up discussion on the Bill first.

Though referring the draft Bill to the state Assembly is a formality as the opinions of the members, irrespective of their number, will have no binding on the Government of India, an intense debate including the demand for voting on the proposed bifurcation is highly likely, according to political observers.

Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandra Babu Naidu came down heavily on the UPA government for acting undemocratically in carrying out the decision to bifurcate the state.

His party members stalled the Assembly proceedings in the morning while raising slogans demanding the status quo. Speaker adjourned the House later in the day after the members paid tributes to former South African president Nelson Mandela.