Andhra Pradesh, Telangana stick to their stands on use of Governor's powers

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments today continued to stick to their stand on Section 8 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, raising political temperatures in the two Telugu states.

Telangana DGP Anurag Sharma, meanwhile, met Governor E S L Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad, which would remain as a common capital for the two states for a period not exceeding ten years; thereafter it would become a part and parcel of Telangana.

Under Section 8, in common capital area, the Governor shall have special responsibility for the security of life, liberty and property of all those who reside in the city and in discharge of the functions, the Governor shall, after consulting the Council of Ministers of the state of Telangana, exercise his individual judgement as to the action to be taken.

Even though the Telangana DGP downplayed the meeting, it assumes significance in the backdrop of demand by AP ministers, including Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, that the Governor takeover law and order in the capital by implementing the Section 8.

"This is routine meeting. No significance. We (police of both the states) always sit together and sort out if there any issues," Sharma told PTI when his attention was drawn towards reported deployment of AP police forces at Naidu's residence in the capital city.

Ever since Revanth Reddy, the TDP MLA from Telangana, was arrested in the "cash-for-vote" case, the ruling party of AP is accusing the TRS government in Telangana of tapping the phone numbers of "important people" of AP, including the CM. The allegation, however, was rubbished by the TRS government.

Both the governments and the ruling parties in the two states have been engaged in a bitter war of words over the alleged cash-for-vote controversy, phone-tapping and construction of irrigation projects in last couple of weeks.