Centre rejects changes in draft Telangana bill

HYDERABAD : The Union Home Ministry has stoutly rejected the demand of the Seemandhra leaders for providing additional documents'financial memorandum and statement of objectives'of the draft Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill-2013.

In a communication to the State government, the Home Ministry made it clear that there was no need to send such information to the State Assembly. It may be recalled that the Seemandhra leaders have been arguing that the draft Telangana bill was full of lacunae and insisting on inclusion of the financial memorandum and statement of objectives in the bill for a meaningful discussion in the Assembly.

However, Joint Secretary in the Union Home Ministry Suresh Kumar said in his communication that there were no new issues that have to be referred to the State Assembly. If any amendments were needed, they could be made during the debate on the Bill in the Parliament, he clarified.

The official's assertion has virtually punctured the contention of the Seemandhra leaders. According to official sources, the bill was prepared after a thorough exercise by the State officials and was endorsed by the Union Cabinet before it was sent to the President.

Hence, there was no need for the Centre to provide further information. The sources said that the role of the State Chief Secretary would end with sending the relevant information to the Centre.

The sources said that the financial memorandum and statement of objectives would be submitted to the Parliament, since the bill would assume full form by then.

The Home Ministry also asserted that the State Assembly can only express its views on the draft bill and there was no need to conduct any voting. It may be mentioned that Seemandhra MLAs demanded that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar send back the draft bill since it contained lot of lacunae.

Seemandhra TDP senior MLAs Gali Muddu Krishnama Naidu and Dhulipalla Narendra alleged that there were 20 loopholes in the Bill and the bill was against the spirit of the Constitution. They alleged that there was no financial statement and statement of objectives.

Earlier, TDP leader Payyavula Keshav had addressed a letter to the Chief Secretary in this regard and in response the CS wrote a letter to the Union Home Ministry.

However, Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha clarified that only expression of views on the bill was possible and nothing more than that. He also opposed the idea of suggesting amendments to some clauses mentioned in the bill.