Naidu demands 'prime land' for AP Bhavan in Hyd, in return for vacant secretariat buildings

Earlier, it was reported that Telangana was eyeing the recently vacated buildings in the Hyderabad secretariat.
Naidu demands 'prime land' for AP Bhavan in Hyd, in return for vacant secretariat buildings
Naidu demands 'prime land' for AP Bhavan in Hyd, in return for vacant secretariat buildings
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Following reports that Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was eyeing the recently vacated buildings of the Andhra Pradesh secretariat in Hyderabad, AP CM Chandrababu Naidu has demanded land for the construction of a modern building to serve as AP Bhavan in Hyderabad.

But this isn’t without a give and take, as the Chief Minister said there was no question of foregoing the land without some land in return.

In a politburo meeting held by the Telugu Desam Party, Union Minister Sujana Chowdhry had brought up the issue with Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan.

According to the Times of India, Naidu reportedly said, "We can keep the buildings in our custody for eight more years. As the Telangana government is requesting us to hand them over to it, we shall ask for prime land in return so that we can construct a guesthouse on the lines of AP Bhavan in Delhi."

The politburo endorsed the proposal and suggested to the CM to start negotiations. However, there is no clarity on how much land the AP government would seek.

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Telangana chief minister spoke to Narasimhan and asked him to take a call on the allotment of the vacated buildings.

TOI also quoted a senior government official as saying:

"The idea is to construct a 5.5 lakh square foot building in place of several blocks in the secretariat. The building will be designed by world-class architects and will become a landmark of Hyderabad. The chief minister wanted to have an integrated building with 10 floors and plenty of parking space. The new secretariat will come in place of the existing one and we will request AP government to handover the buildings it has already vacated."

Speaking to the media, Narasimhan said that the disputes between the two states would be resolved amicably. Naidu also said that he would not go in for a confrontation with respect to division of the assets.

The properties belonged to the then Hyderabad State under the rule of VI Nizam , which remained a separate state for sometime even after Independence. It was eventually included in the Union in 1948.

Andhra did not exist then, as it was carved out of the erstwhile Madras State in October 1953, whereas the Hyderabad State continued to exist until November 1956. That was when Andhra State was merged with the Telugu speaking areas of Hyderabad State and Andhra Pradesh was formed on November 1, 1956.

Telangana was formed on June 2, 2014, following the demerger of Andhra Pradesh. Therefore, the Chief Minister said, this property should devolve to Telangana and cannot be divided between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

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