Request gives AP leverage

AP may link Secretariat blocks to assets

Even as the TS government goes ahead with its plans to construct a new multi-storeyed Secretariat with all modern amenities, the AP government has decided to shift the skeletal staff of its various departments based in Hyderabad to the L Block of the existing Secretariat.

The AP government was allotted J,K,L, North and North H blocks and it has been maintaining skeletal staff of various departments in these blocks.

For example, the office of the AP Chief Secretary still functions from the seventh floor of the L Block while the office of the AP State Election Commission is on the first floor.

Some offices like AP Public Service Commission, AP State Environment Impact Assessment Authority and some of the 10th Schedule institutions function from outside the Secretariat premises.

The AP government has now decided to shift all offices, both inside and outside the Secretariat to L Block.

Meanwhile, sources close to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said that the state government was considering three options following a request from the TS government to hand over the Secretariat buildings, and Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan bringing up the topic with Mr Naidu in Vijayawada on Friday.

The sources said that the first option being considered was retaining only the L Block with AP and handing over the remaining four blocks to the TS government.

The second option was retaining J, K and L Blocks which are adjacent to each other and handing over the remaining two blocks to the TS government.

The third option is to link the TS request for the Secretariat buildings with the 10th Schedule institutions. It may be recalled that the two states are at odds with each other over sharing of assets of the institutions listed in the 10th Schedule.

The AP CM’s comments, made after the Governor broached the TS government’s request on Friday, are significant. Mr Naidu said: “Ours is a giveand-take policy”.

The sources said that Mr Naidu was hinting that if AP gives the Secretariat buildings, it wants to take the assets of 10th Schedule institutions from the TS government. This, the source said, was an indication that AP wants to link the Secretariat buildings with the 10th Schedule institutions.

The AP government was considering three options following a request from the TS government to hand over the Secretariat buildings, sources said