Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and Principal Secretary (Panchayat Raj & Rural Development) Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and Commissioner M. Girija Sankar deposed before the High Court on Thursday in response to the contempt proceedings initiated against them for not complying with the order to remove the blue, green and white colours from Gram Panchayat (GP) buildings.
Ms. Sawhney apprised Chief Justice J.K. Maheswari and Justice N. Jayasurya of the action taken to remove the above colours from GP buildings as directed by them earlier and sought some more time to complete the task.
It was on May 22 that the court set aside G.O. MS No.623 wherein the government came up with terra cotta, blue, green and white as a colour combination that reflects the agrarian nature of the State.
The High Court had in March 2020 ordered that the blue, green and white colours should be removed from the GP buildings but the government added terra cotta to the colours with which the ruling party (YSRCP) is identified, instead of changing the colours altogether.
Taking note of the government’s position and the fact that a special leave petition filed by it in the Supreme Court was scheduled for hearing on the same day (May 28), the High Court posted the matter to May 29 to issue further directions to the State government.
The CJ and Justice Jayasurya commented during the previous hearing that no serious endeavour was made to ensure that the proposed colour combination did not bear resemblance to that of YSRCP flag and offices. Also that the painting GP buildings with blue, green and white was tantamount to misutilising government money by using government properties for political gain.