Headlines
Centre summons Telangana, Andhra governor amid inter-state row
Hyderabad, June 25
The central government has
summoned E.S.L. Narasimhan, the governor of Telangana and Andhra
Pradesh, to New Delhi amid a raging row between the two states over the
special powers of the governor in the common capital of Hyderabad.
The governor is leaving for the national capital Thursday evening. He will meet Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday.
He
is likely to brief the minister about the latest developments and the
rift between the two states in the wake of the cash-for-vote scandal and
phone-tapping.
Narasimhan has been summoned couple of days after
the Attorney General of India reportedly advised him to monitor the
probe into the cash-for-vote scandal by using his special powers under
section 8 of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
Andhra Pradesh
has been demanding the implementation of section 8 to ensure protection
to people of all regions living in Hyderabad.
Chief Minister N.
Chandrababu Naidu had also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few
days ago to demand implementation of the section and also a probe into
the alleged phone tapping by the Telangana government.
Naidu made
the demands after a legislator of his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) was
arrested by Telangana's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) and the airing of
an audio tape of Naidu's alleged telephonic conversation with nominated
MLA Elvis Stephenson.
TDP's deputy leader in Telangana assembly,
A. Revanth Reddy, was arrested on May 31 while he was offering Rs.50
lakh to Stephenson to induce him to vote for the TDP-BJP candidate in
the Telangana legislative council election.
The Telangana Rashtra
Samithi (TRS) government has accused Naidu of raising the demand for
implementation of section 8 to escape from law in the bribery scandal
while the Andhra TDP government has charged Telangana of tapping the
phones of Naidu and his cabinet colleagues.
While Andhra has
hailed the Attorney General's reported advice to the governor to
exercise his powers, TRS has warned of mass movement against any move to
hand over law and order to the governor.
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao met the governor to convey his strong opposition.
Arguing
that law and order is a state subject, TRS leaders say the situation in
Hyderabad is totally peaceful and does not warrant implementation of
section 8.