NEW DELHI, Jan 23 � President Pranab Mukherjee today gave seven more days to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly till January 30 to discuss and debate the draft Telangana Bill before returning it to the Centre which promised to table the legislation in the upcoming session of Parliament, reports PTI.
The President�s decision came following a request from the Andhra Pradesh Government which sought four weeks extension of the January 23 deadline fixed by him while sending the Bill to the State Assembly.
Official sources said the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill now has to be returned by the State Assembly by January 30 with or without its view. However, experts are of the opinion that whatever the Assembly does, Parliament can go ahead with its legislative process for creation of the new State.
Sources said the State Government had conveyed that the Bill has been debated by the Assembly only for a few days and many of the legislators were yet to speak on it and hence extension of the deadline was required.
There are precedents of giving extension of deadline to debate state reorganisation Bills. The Madhya Pradesh Assembly was given extended time by the then President to discuss and approve the Bill for creation of Chhattisgarh.
The Union Cabinet had on December 5 given the go-ahead for the creation of Telangana and outlined the blueprint for carving out the country�s 29th State. Telangana will comprise 10 districts and the rest of Andhra Pradesh will consist of 13 districts. Hyderabad will remain the common capital for both the States for a period not exceeding 10 years.
