Andhra Pradesh Assembly has got another week to debate the draft State Reorganisation Bill 2013. Accepting the request of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and the State Government to extend the time limit for a discussion, the President of India issued an order on Thursday extending the time limit till January 30.
By limiting the extension by only a week, the President has kept the hopes of Telangana supporters alive as it will ensure that Parliament will take up the Telangana Bill in its coming two-week long session starting on February 5. This would be the last session of the 15th lok Sabha.
The earlier deadline given to the Assembly ended on Thursday. With an extension, the Assembly and the legislative Council will continue its debate till the month end.
The State Government had sought an extension of four weeks to enable all the members to express their views on the draft Bill aimed at carving out Telangana State from Andhra Pradesh. However the supporters of Telangana strongly opposed the deadline extension as they feared that it will derail the entire process of forming Telangana State before the next general elections.
Subsequently, the Centre recommended the President to extend the deadline by not more than ten days.
The State Government can always make a request for another extension citing the fact that there is a long list of members wanting to participate in the debate and move amendments but this time the Union Government and the President are unlikely to oblige them.