Government okays SHRC headquarters in Kurnool

VIJAYAWADA: After a long time, YSR Congress cadre is happy following the state government’s administrative decision to shift AP State Human Rights Commission (APSHRC) headquarters to Kurnool. The state government has been facing many legal hurdles in its bid to implement key policy decisions like shifting of executive capital to Visakhapatnam and faced several setbacks in courts.

The AP High Court hearing a petition objecting to shifting of SHRC to Kurnool made it clear that it was for the government to decide where it should be located. Following this, the YSRC government issued an extraordinary gazette notification late Thursday night specifying Kurnool as the headquarters of APSHRC.

It may be recalled that the government had earlier tried to shift several offices to Kurnool after announcing its three capitals decision but ran into legal troubles. Even as the uncertainty over the formation of three capitals looms large with the issue still caught in a legal wrangle, the party’s hopes were rekindled with the permission granted to shift APSHRC.

The Telugu Desam government had decided to shift the commission to Amaravati but it did not materialize. When the YSRC government proposed APSHRC at Kurnool, the Amaravati Joint Action Committee leader Dr. Maddipati Sailaja filed a petition in HC seeking that it be shifted to Amaravati, instead. The HC on Thursday made it clear that it can only direct that the commission be within Andhra Pradesh. It adjourned the matter by four weeks.

Ruling party leaders and the cadre are confident that the development would pave the way for establishing the judicial capital in Kurnool. But opposition leaders are claiming that it requires approval of the Supreme Court to shift the HC.

Meanwhile, minister for municipal administration Botsa Satyanarayana said that the implementation of three capitals was inevitable.