Telangana claims Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, to trigger another row

Hyderabad: Telangana government has staked claim over AP Bhavan in New Delhi, which is likely to trigger yet another controversy between TS and AP. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has written to Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday.

Mr Rao pointed out that erstwhile Nizams bought the land on which AP Bhavan was built and hence should be given solely to Telangana. However, he offered to compensate AP to the extent of its share in the book value of these buildings in the ratio of population since they were constructed with the common resources of undivided AP.

Mr Rao stated, “Erstwhile government of Niz-am of Hyderabad obtai-ned a total of 18.18 acres of land in Delhi from Centre in three bits in 1917, 1928 and 1936 on pa-yment as per the records of then Foreign and Political Department of Centre. The Hyderabad House, AP Bhavan and Telangana Bhavan are situation on these lands at present. The Centre later took over Hyderabad House and land in extents of 7.56 acres in Pataudi House and 1.21 acres in Nursing Insti-tute was allotted to then Government of AP in lieu of property.”

Mr Rao said, “These properties belonged to the then State of Hyder-abad under the rule of VIth Nizam, which remained a separate state even after the independence of India. It was eventually included in the Indian Union in 1948. Incidentally, Andhra did not exist then as it was carved out of the erstwhile Madras State in October 1953 only, whereas the State of Hyderabad continued to exist as such from 1948 until November 1956, when Andhra State was merg-ed with the Telugu spea-king areas of Hyderabad State to create State of Andhra Pradesh on November 1, 1956.

The Telangana CM wrote, “Telangana State was formed on June 2, 2014, which was a case of demerger rathan than the creation of a new state, as the part which was added to the erstwhile State of Hyderabad has now been separated again and it now the residuary state of AP, which is same and not different from the Andhra State, as it existed from 1953 to 1956. Therefore, the property situated in Delhi, which belonged to Nizam and subsequently to the Hyderabad State in the Uni-on of India, should also devolve to the State of Telangana and cannot be divided between AP and TS.”

He urged Mr Rajnath Singh to take an early decision as TS government plans to start the construction of Telangana Bhavan in a planned manner including a culture centre.