AP special legislature session from Jan 20-22

Amid the row over the state capital, a special session of the Andhra Pradesh Legislature will be held here from January 20 to 22.

The report of the High-Powered Committee (HPC), comprising ministers and bureaucrats, will be taken up for discussion during the three-day session before the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government takes a formal decision on the new capital for the state.

The HPC has been constituted on December 29 to work on the concept of "decentralised development" and chalk out a "strategy on the way forward", taking into view the various provisions of the AP Reorganization Act, 2014.

The HPC held two meetings and is scheduled to meet again on January 13.

It is expected to submit its report to the government by January 20.

The state Cabinet will meet on January 20, ahead of the Legislature session to deliberate on the HPC recommendations, highly-placed official sources said.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has already indicated his mind that the state could have "three capitals" --the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, the legislative capital in Amaravati and the judicial capital in Kurnool-- spreading across the three regions of the state.

A six-member committee of experts and also the Boston Consulting Group came up with separate reports endorsing the "distributed capital functions" theory while the HPC is tasked with the job of studying the two reports and coming up with suitable recommendations in line with the Chief Ministers thinking.

The government will spell out its stand on the contentious issue after a detailed discussion in the Legislature, official sources said.