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Modi Government’s circular ‘encroaches’ on Telangana’s powers

Taking cover under Section VIII(A) of the AP Re-organisation Act, 2014 the BJP government at the  centre issued a partisan circular that will severely truncate Telangana government’s constitutional right to administer Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts.

Alarmed by the Telangana government’s alacrity in setting right the historical wrongs perpetrated by the successive Seemandhra governments, several bigwigs from Industry, Films and Politics met their masters to pray for a ‘bail out’. The wily Chandrababu Naidu, losing no time, wrote a letter to the central government to amend the Re-organisation Act to protect the ‘liberty and properties’ of Seemandhras residing in Hyderabad.

Citing the ESL Narasimhan’s letter as a pretext and with the active persuasion by the ‘AP Resident at Centre’, the Union government responded to the pernicious ‘wish list’ of AP Babus with a circular that seeks to vest the law and order duties with the Governor. The communication also proposes setting up of a Common Police Board, comprising Hyderabad and Cyberabad police commissionerates, which will report directly to the Governor, not the Telangana government. What more, the composition of the Board will have officials from both the States on ‘fair share’ basis.

The Centre also sought to bestow on the Governor powers to appoint or transfer police officials within the jurisdiction of the board. In effect, under the proposal, the Telangana government will have no say in policing in Hyderabad.

The present decision of the central government came in the light of Telangana government’s bold initiative to resume, demolish, notify several illegal structures and tracts of land as per the existing provisions of law.

To remind our readers, officials under Chief Minsister KCR’s directive went on a demolition drive on unauthorized structures in Gurukul Trust Lands, put up notices on N-Convention Centre owned by actor Nagarjuna, resumed un-utilized lands given to APNGOs, APFDC.

The present circular from the Centre is seen as a culmination of a series of anti-Telangana decisions like Polavaram ordinance transferring villages to Seemandhra, water release to Krishna Delta ignoring Telangana concerns and cutting down the share of Telangana from the CGS power quota.

Experts say that the Centre cannot take away the State’s power of maintaining law and order since the Constitution lists it as a State subject. The usurpation will throw the delicate Centre-State relations off-balance, they lament. Several States have been demanding that the Governor’s role in the administration be curtailed, if not removed, as the constitutional position has been misused by the  centre to score political points over the democratically elected governments. They say the hasty move by the centre will boomerang for sure once the issue reaches the Parliament for ratification!

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