VIJAYAWADA: The Centre on Wednesday reiterated that the State government has the right to take a decision on the location of its capital city and Amaravati remains the capital city of Andhra Pradesh as of now.
Responding to a question on division of assets between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as per the AP Reorganisation Act in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said on April 23, 2015, the Andhra Pradesh government had declared Amaravati as its capital. However, in July 2020, the State government through a legislation notified three capital cities - Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool.
"However, through newspapers, we have learnt that this has been withdrawn and a decision on creating three capital cities or one capital will be taken after a review. Right now, Amaravati is the capital, as notified by the state government," he noted.
The Union Minister of State informed this while responding to BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao's query on "confusion" over the capital city of Andhra Pradesh.
Replying to supplementary questions, Nityanand Rao said the division of assets between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, as per the APRA, can be undertaken in an expedited manner with mutual agreement and that the Centre can act only as a coordinating agency.
YSRCP MP V Vijaysai Reddy asked if the government can expedite the division of assets worth Rs 1,42,601 crore listed under the schedule 9 and 10 of the APRA. "We cannot give direction, but can only act as a coordinating agency," the Union minister said and added there are institutions listed under Schedule IX of the Act for which a committee was formed.
Out of 90 institutions, Telangana said it has no objection towards dividing 68 institutions. But AP agreed for the division of only 33 institutions out of 68, he said.
Further, the minister said under Schedule 10 of the Act, there are 112 training institutions. But there is no provision for division of these assets under Section 75. However, the Andhra Pradesh government wants division of these assets according to population and Telangana wants it based on the location.
On another query by BJP MP T G Venkatesh, who sought the Centre’s intervention to stop Telangana from using water from its project downstream Srisailam project for power generation and irrigation, the minister said the Centre works as a coordinating agency and the Jal Shakti Ministry looks into such matters. "So far 26 meetings have been held under the chairmanship of the Home Secretary. The issue will be taken up in the next meeting," he added.
Venkatesh also asked if the Centre could intervene to clear the pending power bills to the tune of Rs 6,000 crore, including interest, from the Telangana government towards Andhra Pradesh. The minister replied that the issue is related to pending power bills between two States.
"Generally, the issue gets resolved mutually. If not, we will take inputs from the States and take action. We are only a coordinating agency and cannot take any decision," he said.The minister said that the Centre is concerned about the overall development of the country, including Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.