In a major turning point in the history of Andhra Pradesh, Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan on Friday gave his assent to the A.P. Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions and A.P. Capital Region Development Authority Repeal Bills - 2020.
The clearance of the decentralisation Bill facilitates the development of Amaravati, Kurnool and Visakhapatnam as the Legislative, Judicial and Executive Capitals respectively.
The repeal of the CRDA paves the way for the formation of the Amaravati Metropolitan Region Development Authority. The government is free now to give the ‘three capitals’ proposal a tangible shape while a batch of petitions that challenged the two Bills is pending adjudication by the High Court.
As per the Decentralisation Bill, Visakhapatnam will have the Raj Bhavan, the Secretariat and offices of the Heads of Departments, and Amaravati will be the seat of the Legislature. Regarding the judicial capital, the Bill says: “The seat of all State judicial institutions established under the State legislation, shall, as far as practicable, be located in Kurnool.”
Accordingly, the principal seat of the High Court will be located in Kurnool and Benches constituted as per the procedure laid down in the A.P. Reorganisation Act, 2014. The Bills were considered as ‘deemed to be passed’ as one month has elapsed after their introduction in the Legislative Council for the second time, as per Clause 2 of Article 197 of the Constitution notwithstanding the fact that they were not cleared by the Upper House.
