Telangana bill with all documents reaches Delhi

Hyderabad,  The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill-2013, that was referred to the state Legislature for expressing its views on the proposed bifurcation under Article 3 of the Constitution, was Monday returned to the Centre.

The Bill, which was rejected by the state Legislature by voice vote on January 30, was returned along with translated copies of the statements given by members of the Legislative Council and the Assembly and also over 10,000 amendments/expression of views.

An eight-member team of officials from the state's General Administration department took the copies in 60 bundles by an aircraft to New Delhi to be handed over to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, official sources said.

Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Bill 2013, which seeks to carve out a separate Telangana state, was Monday sent to the Centre along with the report on the debate in the legislature and also resolutions passed in both the houses rejecting the bill.

The documents including the views expressed by the legislators, their suggestions and amendments were sent to Delhi by a scheduled Air India flight in the early hours of Monday amid tight security.

About 35 bundles, weighing about 500 kg, were shifted from state secretariat to Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and from there loaded on the aircraft, officials said.

The material will be handed over to union home ministry. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telangana, at its meeting in Delhi Tuesday, will go through the legislature's views and suggestions for incorporating them into the bill.

The cabinet will then forward the finalized bill to President Pranab Mukherjee for forwarding the same to the parliament.

The assembly and council Jan 30 had passed by a voice vote official resolutions rejecting the bill and requesting the President not to forward the bill to the parliament.

However, it took three days for officials to compile the views expressed by the legislators while participating in the debate.

The officials of the legislature got translated speeches made in Telugu and Urdu into English. Majority of the legislators had submitted their views, suggestions and amendments in writing.

Speaker Nadendla Manohar had announced that that proposals for amendments and expression of views in writing by the members numbering 9,072 were received. According to officials, 50 copies of the documents were sent as sought by the union home ministry.

Legislature Secretary Raja Sadaram Sunday handed over the bill along with all the documents to Chief Secretary P.K. Mohanty.

The latter held meetings with other senior officials and finalized the arrangements for sending the entire material to Delhi.

They are also believed to have briefed Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, whose covering letter, was also reportedly enclosed.

It was the chief minister who had moved the resolution rejecting the bill in the assembly. While he and other leaders from Seemandhra are confident that the President will take the resolutions into consideration before taking a decision on sending the bill to the parliament, the leaders from Telangana argue that the resolutions would have no impact on creation of Telangana state.

They point out that since the President had sought views of the legislature under Article 3 of the Constitution, he would not give any importance to the resolutions.

The President had referred the bill to the state legislature Dec 12, asking it to give its opinion by Jan 23. The same was tabled in both the houses Dec 16. However, it could not be taken up for debate for several days to protests by Seemandhra legislators opposing the bifurcation.

The state government had sought four more weeks to debate the bill but the President extended the deadline by a week. The chief minister's request for another extension by three weeks was rejected.

-PTI