Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy to come face-to-face

Hyderabad: Though the desk officers and the Speaker’s rostrum prevented Chief Minister N.  Chandrababu Naidu and Leader of Opposition Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to look at each other in the first session of AP Assembly, the forthcoming Budget session will be different.

Speaker Dr Kodela Siva Prasada Rao had ordered a complete change of the seating arrangements, which will enable the Leader of the House and the Leader of Opposition to see one another.

“The old hall had not been put to use for conducting proceedings for a long time. The seating arrangement there was not peoper,” said a senior official from AP Assembly.

There were some other faults in the seating arrangement as well. If a member had to move in or out, the other members seated in that same row had to come out.

“This is an awkward seating arrangement. I have ordered a change in the entire seating arrangement and it will be ready by the first week of August,” the Speaker said on Wednesday while inspecting the works in the Old Assembly Hall.

Besides the seating arrangements, the Speaker has also got an exclusive entrance into the House. From the year of 1956 to 1985,  the Speaker used to have an exclusive entrance leading to his chair.

But, the entrance was closed when the Assembly shifted.

The old light fixtures are  also being changed and a new air conditioner system is being installed.

Meanwhile, the contentious issues of sharing offices in the Assembly buildings between Telangana and AP Assemblies are also being sorted out.

Mr  Jagan Mohan Reddy is being given one portion of the ground floor in the administrative building for his office. Telangana Assembly deputy Speaker  Padma Devender Reddy has agreed to move out from the old building, and the office is being allotted to AP Assembly deputy Speaker Mandali Budda Prasad.