Governor's powers row: TRS lawmakers to meet Rajnath Singh tomorrow

Hyderabad: The issue of granting special powers to the Telangana Governor to oversee law and order and take corrective measures in the common capital area of Hyderabad is set to surface again with Union home minister Rajnath Singh scheduled to meet TRS MPs on August 21.

In a related development, Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan will be in New Delhi for a three-day visit and is expected to meet Mr Singh among others to brief them on the latest situation in the state.
The home minister had promised to meet the TRS MPs on August 18 but the meeting was postponed to August 21 following his sudden visit to Uttarakhand.

Section 8 of the AP Reorganisation Act provides special responsibilities to the Telangana Governor. However, the Telangana government has refused in writing to cooperate with the mechanism and the norms directed by the home ministry as part of enforcing the provisions. There has been stand-off between the Telangana government and the Centre on this particular issue.

The Centre has so far appointed two advisers to the Governor using its powers under the same section of the Act but could not proceed further to put in place a foolproof mechanisam due to stiff opposition from the Telangana government.

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had earlier clarified that the Telangana Governor will enjoy whatever powers that were enshrined in Article 163 of the Constitution, and nothing beyond.

However, the Centre is bound to come out with modalities on implementation of Section 8 as more than two months passed after the Act became effective.
TRS floor leader in Lok Sabha A.P. Jitender Reddy on Tuesday told this newspaper, “We are not going to leave the issue, we don’t want Governor be empowered with special responsibilities other than enshrined in Constitution, we want elected government and Cabinet say should prevail in Telangana like in any other state, we will inform the home minister on the same”.

According to sources in the Union home ministry, all the directives that were communicated to the Telangana government on this issue were okayed by Mr Rajnath Singh.
Sources said if at all any modifications are being sought in diluting some of the directives again it should from the ‘Home Minister’.