How Andhra's new hi-tech Assembly is equipped to handle unruly scenes
A new chapter in legislative history began at 11.06am on March 6 when Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan came in a ceremonial procession to address the joint session of the legislative assembly and the legislative council at Velagapudi in the state capital Amaravati.
This is for the first time after the state was reorganised on June 2, 2014, that the state legislature is meeting there after bidding adieu to Hyderabad — its joint capital with Telangana.
For the first time in 2,200 years, Andhra "regained" the power to make its own laws from its soil. Even when Andhra was formed in the 1950s by carving it out of the old Madras State in the 1950s, Kurnool in Rayalaseema was chosen as the capital. Quintessential Telugus still consider it as distinctive though the Rayalaseema region, including Chittoor from where chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu hails, is now part of Andhra Pradesh.
What chief minister Naidu has provided finally is a modern House. He does not miss an opportunity in tweaking projects to tap technology. Microphones, the common target of angry MLAs, are sophisticated, flexible and unbreakable, imported from Germany and Wi-Fi-enabled. It will not be activated unless the speaker in the Assembly or chairman of the Council gives the nod for a particular member to speak.
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| What chief minister Naidu has provided finally is a modern House. |
“The ultra modern microphones can pick up the voice of a member when he is on his feet. There is no need for it to be held close to the mouth,” says Assembly Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao. It is also equipped to handle unruly scenes, for the presiding officer’s podium is aloof and high, making the prospects of "unbecoming conduct of a MLA" remote and happenings like that in the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly last month, difficult.
Spacious halls with gypsum roofs ensure there are no echoes while glittering lights glisten on the luxurious polished granite floor to make it virtual mirrors. Seating facilities have been created for 230 MLAs and 90 MLCs though the current strength is 175 and 58, respectively. The sprawling 1,00,000 sqft legislature complex in a five-acre area has also adequate parking which was always short in Hyderabad.
Governor Narasimhan made the 50-minute inaugural address to the MLAs and MLCs a historic one when he spoke of the incumbent government being in favour of simultaneous elections.
“My government is in full agreement with the view that elections to both state assemblies and Lok Sabha be held simultaneously so that the Centre and state governments could pay their undivided attention to issues of policy and governance. We will go a step further and suggest that elections to urban and rural local bodies too should be held within one year of the elections to the state and central legislative houses,” said the governor.
It is easier said than done but Naidu has capitalised on the opportunity to resonate with Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has taken a similar view. The address included a wishlist to be fulfilled by the NDA government involving a request for legal status for the special financial package extended in lieu of special category status to the state.
Coincidentally marking the occasion was the return of the acerbic YSR Congress legislator RK Roja who was suspended from the House for misconduct by speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao in March 2016. But there was no let up in her targeting Naidu and the ruling TDP.
“If there is anyone who could be called Andhra Trump and Andhra Sasikala, it would be Chandrababu Naidu,” she declared, though outside the Assembly.
The shift of the legislature to the new location may also trigger the revival of the Amaravati School of Architecture, that dominated the world in the third century BC, as Andhra Pradesh is pledged to hark back to its past at least in the shape and design of buildings that are to come up in its capital.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)