Long way to have Telangana House in Delhi

NEW DELHI: It seems getting its own building in Delhi might just take as long as statehood did for the government of Telangana. At present, it is sharing the prestigious Andhra Pradesh Bhavan as the common bhavan on the lines of Hyderabad as joint capital, and will have to cross many hurdles, including changing the Delhi Master Plan, to get its own space.

Telangana government, which is busy with reconstruction of Telangana, is yet to come out with its plan for construction of Telangana Bhavan. However, officials from the state government had initiated the process and recently met officials of the Delhi Development Authority on the procedures for construction of a State Bhavan in the Patuadi House complex.

According to sources, DDA authorities have made it clear that Telangana government cannot go ahead with any proposal of constructing a multi-storey building in Patuadi House complex since it falls under residential area. The officials underlined the need to change the Delhi Master plan to declare the residential area into an institutional area. For any changes in the Delhi Master Plan, the approval of the Urban Development Ministry is mandatory.

Since the land falls in the Lutyens' zone, the Telangana government can only construct G1 building keeping at least 30 percent of total lands for parks, etc. As this would not serve their purpose, the state authorities are holding meetings with bureaucrats in Delhi to ensure the new state has its own share of space here.

But before initiating a change in the Delhi Master Plan and constructing the building, the state needs to get the land title for the Pataudi House complex, which is with the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh state.

Though the Centre created the map of Telangana by carving it out from Andhra Pradesh, the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act is silent on the Andhra Pradesh Bhawan. The AP Reorgansiation Act only mentions sharing assets situated outside the existing Andhra Pradesh on the basis of population ratio.

Andhra Pradesh Reorgansiation Act says, 'Provided that in case of properties situated outside the existing State of Andhra Pradesh, such properties shall be apportioned between the successor states on the basis of population ratio.'

Though the Telangana state came into existence on June 2, properties outside united Andhra Pradesh are yet to be shared. AP Bhavan, which became a symbol of Telugu heritage and culture in Delhi has 72 rooms spread across three blocks and nine floors.

United Andhra Pradesh state managed to get property from the Centre in lieu of the palatial Hyderabad House. Though the Centre used to transfer funds to AP for its control on Hyderabad House, it stopped after 1974.

When NT Rama Rao became Chief Minister, he forced the Centre to share land and was ultimately handed over 7. 4 acres of land in Pataudi house and 3.7 acres of land near AP Bhavan.

Despite the efforts of the successive governments to develop the vacant land in AP Bhavan complex, the land is still lying vacant. Since the division of the vacant land is yet to be shared between the two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, for the time being, AP Bhavan rooms have been divided on a 58:42 ratio (based on the population of the two states). AP Bhavan officials maintain that this is a temporary arrangement till the new state builds its own bhavan.