The Reserve Bank of India, which is supposed to set up its regional office in Andhra Pradesh more than five years ago, has not made any such attempt in that direction.
Reason: it has attributed the same to the confusion over location of the capital city for the state.
In a latest reply to a letter written by All India Panchayat Parishad state unit president Jasti Veeranjaneyulu to Prime Minister’s Office on January 12 this year, the RBI authorities wrote him back saying no decision had been taken on the establishment of the regional office due to lack of clarity on the capital city.
Veeranjaneyulu wrote to the PMO that the previous government had allocated 11 acres of land in Amaravati on lease to the RBI on December 1, 2016 for setting up of the regional office. But since the land was not developed by then, the RBI did not take up any steps to construct the office building there.
As a result, the state government officers and the banks in Andhra Pradesh are forced to come to the RBI regional office in Hyderabad for their cash requirements even after 10 years. This is causing a lot of inconvenience to the bankers as well as the government, he said.
He pointed out that the Centre had already acknowledged Amaravati as the capital city, both in Parliament as well as in the Survey of India map.
“Why didn’t the RBI take any steps to set up the regional office at Amaravati?” he asked.
However, RBI general manager Sumed Jawade replied that the RBI could not make any progress on the establishment of regional office in AP due to changed stand of the government on the capital city.
“Since no final decision has been taken on the location of the capital city, we are not able to set up the regional office,” he said.
In fact, in February this year, the RBI agreed to set up the regional office at Visakhapatnam and asked the state government to allocate required office space or land for the same.
The RBI said it required a building with an area of 30,000 square feet and the state government authorities began searching for the same. The officials are preparing to establish a regional office with 500 employees in the first phase and expand its operations subsequently.
But now, with the latest letter, it appears the RBI is still in a state of confusion.
