Decentralisation underway: Botcha Satyanarayana

Amaravati: Minister for municipal administration and urban development Botcha Satyanarayana said that process of decentralisation had already begun. His statement on Friday comes amid the speculation that the government will shift its administrative operations to Visakhapatnam after Ugadi (March 25).

The buzz in the Secretariat here is that government departments will be moved to Visakhapatnam by the first week of April.

Already, the government issued orders shifting the offices of the Vigilance Commissioner and Commissionerate of Inquiries to Kurnool "on administrative grounds".

The state High Court is currently hearing a petition against the government's move.

At a press conference at the Secretariat here, Satyanarayana said that the government was going ahead with decentralisation (of administration) in accordance with the law, implying that the move to have three capitals for the state was very much on.

"The decentralisation process began when the government passed a resolution in the Assembly (in January). We will follow the Constitution and the law while carrying out the process and respect the court directions," the minister said.

Stressing that decentralisation was the "governments policy", he said they would go ahead with the plan of having the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, legislative capital in Amaravati and judicial capital in Kurnool.

Asked if the legislative process, which got stuck in the Legislative Council, on decentralisation would be taken further or dropped, he remarked that "it will take its due course."

To another question on how long the process could take and if there were any specific timelines, the minister said he did not have relevant information on hand.

He denied that government employees were opposing the decentralisation plan.

"They are all happy. We have not received a single complaint or objection from them so far," Satyanarayana maintained.

He lashed out at the opposition TDP for 'spreading lies' even in Parliament that Information Technology companies were being forced to vacate Millennium Tower-A in Visakhapatnam to accommodate government offices.

"Not a single IT company has been asked to move out. By making such misleading statements, the TDP is only damaging the state's interests," he added.