Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan on Sunday issued orders to hand back government buildings allotted to the Andhra Pradesh government in Hyderabad to the Telangana government, reported PTI. The government buildings were allotted during the bifurcation of the two states in 2014.
The Andhra Pradesh government, however, began to operate from Amaravati, following which the buildings in Hyderabad given to it remained vacant, the official statement said. Narasimhan ordered the reallocation of the buildings to Telangana under Section 8 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The order was issued after getting consent from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. “It is a welcome and auspicious sign that both the state governments have decided to move forward with mutual goodwill and fraternity with people’s welfare in mind and development of both the states as the main aim,” Rao said, according to PTI. He said that he wanted to see the people of both the states living peacefully with all the problems resolved amicably.
The Andhra Pradesh government would be given two buildings out of the lot, one for the police and the other for department offices. A majority of the buildings are in dilapidated condition as they were not being used, the release said.
On June 2, 2014, the state of Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and a separate state of Telangana was carved out. The bifurcation Act mandates that Hyderabad will remain a common capital of of the two states for a period of 10 years. Therefore, the government buildings in Hyderabad were divided between the two states for their offices.
The Telugu Desam Party, formed in 2014, did not want to wait for 10 years and run the administration from Hyderabad. Thus, it decided to move the administration to Vijaywada, Guntur, and its adjoining areas while construction in Amaravati began, to turn it into the new capital of Andhra Pradesh.
Under former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu’s administration, the entire secretariat, other government departments, and the corporations were shifted to Amaravati, according to the Hindustan Times.
The buildings in Hyderabad, remained in the possession of the Andhra Pradesh government, for which it paid property taxes, electricity bills, and other maintenance costs to the Telangana government. The latter has reportedly been asking for the buildings to be handed back to it for over three years now, PTI reported.
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