Kodela Sivaprasada Rao Elected Speaker of AP, Secretariat Staff to Get Houses near New Capital City

Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) senior legislator and a sixth-time MLA from Guntur district Kodela Sivaprasada Rao was on Friday, 20 June, elected unanimously as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh.

Amid applause from all MLAs in the House, the Protem Speaker P Narayanaswamy Naidu announced Rao's election in the old Assembly building in Hyderabad, which has been allotted to the residual AP after bifurcation of Telangana state.

Only Rao had filed nomination for the Speaker's post and all parties, including YSRCP, supported his candidature and facilitated his election. After announcing Rao's name, the pro-tem Speaker administered the oath of office to the new Speaker.

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Leader of Opposition YS Jaganmohan Reddy and other ministers escorted the newly elected Speaker to his Chair in the Assembly hall.

Rao has held several portfolios of ministries like Health and Rural Development during his vast political career, when late NT Rama Rao and Naidu were chief ministers of the united Telugu-speaking state. Kodela is a doctor by profession and was elected from Sattenapalli Assembly constituency in Guntur district.

Houses to Secretariat Staff near new capital:

Naidu on Thursday assured that the State Secretariat employees would be provided with residences near the new capital city. The CM made the announcement while responding to the demands of the employees' associations.

The exact site of the new capital city of AP is yet to be announced officially, though Naidu has already announced that the capital city would come up near Mangalagiri, between Vijayawada and Guntur.

In his first address to the State Secretariat, Naidu also spoke about the creation of a Services Ministry to sort out the State employees' grievances. The State Secretariat staff donated two days basic salary for construction of new capital city of the state and some are said to have also donated cash and gold to build the new capital city of AP on Thursday.

Whitepaper on AP's fiscal status:

Meanwhile, the State Finance and Legislative Affairs Minister Y Ramakrishnudu on Thursday stated that the State government would release a whitepaper on the current financial status of the bifurcated AP state, once the ongoing Assembly session comes to an end.

Ramakrishnudu said that the State government is to write to the Union government, seeking permission to bring changes in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act. The amendment to the Act is to ease norms pertaining to financial and revenue deficits.