The Andhra Pradesh high power committee has endorsed the talk of decentralisation of bureaucratic powers in the state. The committee that includes ministers, IAS officers and IPS officers has given its go-ahead to the two reports submitted in this regard, this will also be applicable in the state capital.
During a meeting of top government officials the expert panel also looked into the recommendations of the two committees that were constituted by the government on the issue.
The panel headed by retired IAS officer G N Rao and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have recommended decentralisation of power and trifurcation capital. The GN Rao committee recommended relocation of judicial capital (high court) to Kurnool, executive capital (secretariat) to Visakhapatnam, while retaining the legislative capital (assembly) in Amaravati.
However, the BCG, while recommending three capitals, went one step forward by distributing the executive into six groups and favoured Amaravati and Visakhapatnam.
The high power committee, headed by finance minister Buggana Rajendranath, too is said to have favoured distribution of various government departments between Visakhapatnam and Amaravati, as suggested by the BCG. The committee, in principle, also agreed to observations of the two committees that construction of capital in Amaravati would be a financial burden on the government.
The committee observed that both the GN Rao committee and the BCG have pointed out financial constraints before the government in continuing the capital project in Amaravati as proposed by the previous government. It also referred to the recommendations of the Siva Ramakrishnan committee on the capital, which recommended against financial burden to the government by going for a huge architectural capital. The Ramakrishnan committee, too, had recommended decentralization of development, including the capital, but did not recommend concentration of government offices in one location based on the Hyderabad experience. This point, too, was discussed at the meeting of the high power committee, sources told TOI.
The committee also listened to the views of retired IAS officer G N Rao, who headed the expert committee. The retired bureaucrat reportedly gave a comparative presentation of his report and that of the BCG for the benefit of the members of the high power committee.
The committee has now decided to hold more meetings in the next two weeks and submit its recommendations to the government by January 20.
