VIJAYAWADA: Stating that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy had proposed relocation of the Andhra Pradesh High Court from Amaravati to Kurnool in February 2020, the Centre has informed Parliament that it is for the State government and the HC to take a decision on the matter. The Centre has also clarified that there is no proposal to set up High Court benches in any other cities.
In reply to a question by BJP Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao on Thursday, Union Minister of Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “Shifting of the principal seat of High Court is decided by the State government in consultation with the High Court concerned. The State government is responsible for meeting the expenditure of running the High Court. Similarly, the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned is responsible for running the day to day administration of the court. In the present instance, both the State government and the High Court of Andhra Pradesh have to form their opinion regarding shifting of the HC to Kurnool.”
While noting that no time frame is laid down in such matters, he stated that the issue is sub-judice presently in the State High Court. To another query by GVL on the Central institutions sanctioned and taken up in Chittoor district, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal stated that four institutes -- Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Tirupati, Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Sri City, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Tirupati, and National Sanskrit University, Tirupati -- were established.
The Centre has released grants of Rs 737 crore out of the sanctioned Rs 1,074 crore for the IIT and Rs 214 crore out of the sanctioned Rs 1,137 crore for the IISER so far. “The number of students graduated from IIT and IISER is 259 and 35,” the Union Minister informed. He also stated that construction of the permanent campus for the institutions is in full swing, in a reply to another query by another BJP MP YS Chowdary.
Union Minister of State for Electronics Sanjay Dhotre, to a question by GVL on the Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMCs) in AP, said that the State was at the forefront of attracting investments in electronics and manufacturing in India.
“To achieve the goals of Make in India and Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, Andhra Pradesh is making efforts to attract electronics manufacturing companies in upstream value chain such as components manufacturing apart from assembly. These include mobile assembly units, passive components, battery, EMS and consumer electronics manufacturing units,” Dhotre added.