It will be very difficult for the Opposition members to wrench mikes, thump desks or surround the speaker’s podium in the brand new Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh which would be inaugurated in the first week of March. Constructed at a cost of around Rs 300 crore, the new Assembly and the Council buildings are one of its kinds in the country.
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is trying to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the inauguration of the Legislature buildings in the interim government complex at Velagapudi, in the heart of Amaravati, between Vijayawada and Guntur. “We are ready to adjust to the dates of the PM, if he agrees to come,” AP Municipal Administration Minister Narayana told The Sunday Guardian.
The ruling TDP has decided to hold the budget session of the Assembly either from 2 March or 6 March depending on the availability of the PM and other senior Union ministers for the inauguration function which will be held a day before. If the PM cannot make it, the session may commence on 9 March when the second half of the Parliament budget session too resumes.
Constructed by the L&T and Ms Shapoorji and Pallonji, the new Assembly buildings are unique in many ways. As the mikes are fixed to the sound-proof metal and fiber tables, the angry members cannot wrench or break them. All the mikes are connected to a WiFi control set up on the Speaker’s table, so no member can speak without permission from the Chair. As the high density tables cannot make any noise, it will be tough to thump desks which the opposition members are used to in the country. Another feature which made it virtually impossible to surround the speaker’s chair is the seven feet tall podium that separates the Chair from the Well of the House.
The only way to meet the speaker is to walk up to his seat through passages either side of him, but the ways are guarded by marshals. “We have incorporated all these features not to stifle the voice of the opposition members or to snub their protests, but only to avoid ruckus and pandemonium that has become a regular feature in the Assemblies,” said a government whip, while preferring anonymity.
Another unique feature of the building is that the CM’s chamber has been built next to the Assembly hall so that he can straightaway walk into the House during the session. In the newly built AP Assembly with a total strength of 176 members (including a nominated Anglo Indian member), there is provision for 225 members, as the number is set to be increased as per the AP Reorganization Act. Spacious galleries for media, officials and visitors are arranged in the upper chamber along with lobbies, library and canteen for the members.
While the government boasted of hosting the first session of the Assembly constructed within a record two and a half years since the state’s bifurcation, the opposition slammed the ruling party for wasting so much of public money on the legislative complex at a time when farmers and the youth are facing problems in AP.
A delegation of opposition YSR Congress led by P. Ramachandra Reddy which visited the new Assembly complex on Tuesday felt that the features like controlled mike system and tall podium would take away the rights of the opposition parties. “Moreover, there is no separate chamber for the Opposition Leader,” Reddy told this newspaper on phone.
Ramachandra Reddy also said, “All this money would be a waste once we move to a new permanent Assembly.”
But the ruling TDP is not ready to buy this argument. The ministers think that it was a matter of prestige for the government to move to Amaravati to hold AP’s first Assembly session within a short period of two and a half years. “We left Hyderabad much early and are to hold our Assembly session in our state,” said IT Minister P. Raghunatha Reddy.
The permanent legislature complex would take another three years to build. Already six blocks of Secretariat have come up alongside the new Assembly and the Council buildings so that the entire bureaucracy would find it easier to attend to the sessions. As the CM and all the ministers are located within a few meters from the Assembly, it would be easy for them to walk up to the House during the session. Security too would be tight, said the officials. The new Assembly and the Council will be special for the glittering lighting, imported marbles and gypsum roof. The CRDA (Capital Region Development Authority) officials who worked round the clock to inaugurate the Assembly by this budget session are still giving finishing touches to the building.