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Andhra Pradesh Government will shift administration, including the Chief Minister’s office, to Visakhapatnam from July this year. However, it may not be a ‘big bang’ shift given the fact that the matter is now subjudice as many cases challenging the decentralised capitals proposal of the State Government are with the Supreme Court now.
Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who has been hinting about the possible shift of administration, confirmed to his cabinet colleagues in its meeting on Tuesday that the shift would happen in July, according to reliable sources.
“The Chief Minister would move first and might attend to most of the administrative work from Vizag as there is no legal problem with the CM being relocated to the city from Amaravati,” a senior official said.
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Jagan Mohan Reddy declared that he would be moving to the city ‘soon’ at the AP’s Global Investment Summit, held in Visakhapatnam early this month.
The official machinery is gearing up to take the Chief Minister’s idea forward and is said to have been working on a suitable location to house the CM.
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The State Government appears to be treading cautiously on the capital issue to avoid any legal complications. “Till the matter is decided by the Supreme Court, the CM might also prefer to spend some of his time in Amaravati too even after relocating to Visakhapatnam in July,” the official said.
Key departments, such as finance, agriculture, industries commercial taxes, will `automatically’ move to Visakhapatnam along with CM.
The State Governor refrained from making any reference to the capital shift or the three capital plan in his speech in the Budget session of AP Assembly, which began in Amaravati on Monday.
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Complication
However, the senior officials are of the opinion that the Government will not be in a position to shift the Secretariat mainly due to the legal hurdles and will have to wait for the final verdict from the Supreme Court.
As per the State Government’s proposal for decentralised development, three capitals would be set up for the State for executive, legislature, and judicial at Visakhapatnam, Amaravati, and Kurnool, respectively.
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