The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Discussion on for Council secretariat

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Wednesday, Mar 28, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Discussion on for Council secretariat

M. Rajeev

Creation of an independent secretariat for the Council would involve logistics like manpower

HYDERABAD: With the arrangements for the constitution of the Legislative Council in place, the administrative circles are engaged in a debate over the powers that will be delegated to the would-be secretary of the Council.

It has been a tradition to depute an officer of the rank of a Joint Secretary in the Assembly secretariat as the secretary of the Legislative Council.

This means that despite being the administrative head of the Council, its secretary would be a subordinate to the Legislative Assembly secretary who will be the overall head of the Council as well as the Assembly.

Separate mechanism

A section of officials are, however, favouring the model adopted in four out of the five States - Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir - where Legislative Councils' secretariats function as independent entities.

"The creation of a separate mechanism for the Council is not a difficult issue. It can be established within no time if the Legislative Assembly Speaker and Council Chairman give their consent to it," a senior official said.

But, few officials were of the view that the Government might not prefer the creation of an independent secretariat for the Council as it would involve various logistics like manpower, budgetary allocations and other issues that need to be looked into. When contacted Legislative Assembly secretary K. Tuljanand Singh refused to comment on the issue maintaining that it was up to the Speaker and the Government to take a decision on creating an independent mechanism for the Council.

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