AP State Government issues orders to relocate three offices from Amaravati

Amid the three-capital row in Andhra Pradesh, the AP State Government has decided to shift three government offices from Amaravati. In this regard, Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary, Nilam Sawhney (IAS), issued orders on Friday night directing the officials to relocate offices of the Vigilance Commissioner, Chairman of Commissionerate of Inquiries, and the Members of Commissioner of Inquiries to Kurnool.

These offices are currently housed in temporary buildings at Velagapudi, in Guntur District. They will soon be shifted to Kurnool, which has been proposed as one of the three capitals for the state. The Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary ordered the Kurnool District Collector, the Kurnool District Magistrate and the respective Roads and Buildings (R&B) Engineer-in-Chief to identify suitable buildings to move the aforementioned offices immediately. 

The move comes even after the AP High Court’s recent statement against shifting offices away from Amaravati. The court informed that since the bill, related to the capital decentralisation, is still pending no such actions can be taken by the AP State Government. In case of violating the rules, the officials would then have to shift the offices back to Amaravati at their own expense. 

In order to decentralise the administration in the state, the AP State Government had earlier proposed to set up three capitals with Kurnool as the judiciary capital, Visakhapatnam as the executive capital and Amaravati as legislative capital. Though the three-capital bill was passed in the Assembly, the Chairman of the Legislative Council referred the bill to a Select Committee on 22 January, 2020. The panel will submit the report by the end of three months.