President gives 7 days to Andhr Pradesh Assembly to discuss Telangana bill

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee today gave seven more days to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly till January 30 to discuss and debate the draft Telangana bill in the House before returning it to the Centre.

The decision has been taken by the President following a request of the Andhra Pradesh government which sought four weeks extension of the January 23 deadline fixed by him while sending the bill to the state Assembly. Official sources said the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill now has to be returned by the state Assembly by January 30 with or without its view. However, experts are of the opinion that whatever the Assembly does, Parliament can go ahead with its legislative process for creation of the new state.

Sources said the state government had conveyed that the bill has been debated by the Assembly only for a few days and many of the legislators were yet to speak on it and hence extension of the deadline was required. Earlier, the President had sent the draft bill to the state legislature on December 12 and gave time until January 23 to discuss and return it. There are precedents of giving extension of deadline to debate state reorganisation bills.

The Madhya Pradesh Assembly was given extended time by the then President to discuss and approve the bill for creation of Chhattisgarh. The UPA government is expected to introduce in Parliament the Telangana bill in the coming session beginning February 5.