HC Says State has Authority to Set Up Camp Offices in Visakhapatnam

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court said the state government has the authority to set up its camp offices in Visakhapatnam and expressed its intent to announce a decision to take up hearing on a petition filed challenging the GO issued accordingly.

A two-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Justice U. Durga Prasad held a hearing on a petition filed by the farmers from Amaravati here on Friday challenging the GO No. 2283 issued by the state government to allow setting up of government camp offices in Visakhapatnam for the purpose of reviewing development of north Andhra region based on the report submitted by the committee of IAS officers.

The court made it clear that they were not finding anything wrong with the state government’s move to set up camp offices in Visakhapatnam. It observed that as the three judge bench earlier issued an order not to shift the government offices located in Amaravati, they were having the responsibility to see that such order should not be overruled.

Advocate-General S. Sriram submitted that the state government has the responsibility to provide proper accommodation to the officials who attend the review meetings on development of north Andhra by setting up camp offices and ruled out any shifting of government offices from Amarvati to Visakhapatnam. He laid stress for hearing of petitions dealing with such an issue by the three judge bench.