Assembly sharing: TS, AP speaker's strike deal

HYDERABAD: On a day when Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu shook each other's hands for the second time in the recent past, Speakers of TS and AP Assemblies - Sirikonda Madhusudanachary and Kodela Siva Prasada Rao - reached an amicable agreement on sharing the buildings on the premises of the Assembly for the Legislatures of both the States.

This development assumes significance and it might further cement the 'newly-forged friendship' between the governments of the two States, which had been at loggerheads on every contentious issue till the other day.

Ahead of the commencement of the budget session of AP Assembly, scheduled to begin on Monday, Siva Prasada Rao and Madhusudanachary met each other at the Assembly premises here on Friday and held confabulations on how to bifurcate the buildings and chambers in the compound between the Assemblies of the two States.

Apart from Telangana Legislative Council Chairman K Swamy Goud, secretaries of the Legislature Secretariats of both TS and AP- S Raja Sadaram and K Satyanarayana Rao- were also present in the meeting.

Emerging from the meeting, Siva Prasada Rao told mediapersons that their meeting was fruitful and they had reached an amicable agreement on how to share the offices and chambers.

Stating that they have thoroughly examined the GO, the AP Assembly Speaker divulged that both of them agreed to share the buildings as per the suggestions made by the governor in the GO.

'The old building on the Assembly premises has been allocated to AP, with an exception to the chamber that was already allocated to TS Deputy Speaker. Ministers' chambers and other rooms in the new building will be allocated uniformly between the two states,' Siva Prasada Rao said.

According to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker, his Telangana counterpart Madhusudanachary had agreed to the proposal that both the Assemblies should have equal number of chambers and administrative buildings on the premises of the Assembly.

When wanted to know whether there would be any clash between the two Assemblies, if at all both the Assemblies have their sittings at the same time, Siva Prasada Rao replied that they had agreed to take steps that the two Assemblies are not held at the same time. If at all such situation arises, then they would ensure that the timings of the sittings of the two Houses would be different, he added.

The AP Speaker further disclosed that Madhusudanachary and he had decided to meet one more time to sort out remaining issues amicably.

In fact, earlier there was a disagreement between Siva Prasada Rao and Madhusudanachary over sharing accommodation in the Assembly building. Following that Siva Prasada Rao met the Governor and reportedly requested his interference in the matter.

In the wake of AP Assembly Speaker's request, the Governor is learnt to have suggested 'present form of solution' for the issue by releasing a GO.