It was a red letter day in the history of Andhra Pradesh as the Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the newly constructed state-of-the-art building of the State legislative Assembly as part of the upcoming Capital city of Amaravati.
“Today is a historic day when we have built the Assembly building on our own land. On this occasion I am feeling happy as well as sad”, Naidu told the inaugural function recalling how after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh his Government had to leave Hyderabad and start from the scratch to building the new infrastructure.
Recalling how the people of Andhra Pradesh were humiliated at the time of bifurcation, Naidu said the State had overcome many obstacles during last 70 years. “First after bifurcation of Madras our Capital came to Kurnool and from there it moved to Hyderabad when Vishal Andhra Pradesh was formed. Fifty-eight years later we had to come here leaving everything behind”, he said.
While the State administration was being run from make shift Capital in Vijayawada and Guntur districts as most of the buildings were still under construction in the new capital, the State Assembly building was completed in record 192 days at a cost of Rs 120 crore.
“The new building was built in a way that nobody will be able to uproot the mikes or disturb the Speaker”, Naidu said. The first test of the claim will be on March 6 when the budget session of the state assembly begins. To overcome the problem of noisy protests and interruption, only soundproof material was used in the building. The state of the art audio system in the assembly will be controlled by the Speaker to ensure that only members allowed by him will be able to speak.
The complex has two-storied building with two halls for the legislative Council and legislative Assembly. There are separate chambers for the Speaker, deputy speaker, the Chief Minister, leader of opposition and whips.
State finance and legislative affairs minister Y Ramakrishnudu told the media that AP Capital Region Development Authority will hand over the Assembly building to the legislature Secretariat officials and police take over its security. The security has man state of the art feature adopted from various countries and states including the British parliament in london, officials said.
Naidu said that this was an excellent facility and henceforth any big conference should be organized here. “After the bifurcation in an unjust manner by the then government we moved here lock, stock and barrel and with a lot of debts but now we have resources and the talent to work and make Andhra Prdesh number one state in the country”, Naidu declared.
The inaugural function was attended by the Speaker Kodela Sivaprasad Rao, Council Chairman Chakrapani, union minister Ashok Gajapati Raju and several state ministers and legislators.