Copies of draft AP reorganisation bill flown to Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Copies of the draft of AP Reorganisation Bill-2013 were brought to the city by a special aircraft this evening and distributed by the Joint Secretary in the Union Home Ministry, Suresh Kumar.

Kumar, who brought copies of the draft Bill in eight bundles, drove straight to the Secretariat and handed over the first lot to Chief Secretary Prasanna Kumar Mohanty.

From there, he drove to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy's camp office and handed over the second bunch and then went to Raj Bhavan where another set was submitted to Governor ESL Narasimhan.

Finally, the copies were handed over to Legislature Secretary S Raja Sadaram after which the Joint Secretary flew back to New Delhi by a special aircraft, official sources said.

It is expected that the draft Bill will be placed in the Assembly tomorrow as the winter session began today.

President Pranab Mukherjee, to whom the draft Bill had been referred by the Union Cabinet, returned it to the Union Home Ministry for forwarding it to the AP Assembly for its views.

Though officials were tight-lipped, sources said the President has given six weeks to the Assembly to express its views and return the draft Bill to him.

As per the Article 3 of the Constitution, the views of the Assembly -- positive or negative -- have no bearing on the bifurcation process, as the Centre is not bound by the state's views in this matter.