Supreme Court asks Andhra Pradesh govt to remove ruling party colours from govt buildings

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to remove the ruling YSR Congress Party colours from government buildings within four weeks, warning that it would attract contempt in case of failure to comply with the order.
This is the second time that the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government has received unfavourable orders from the top court over this issue. According to opposition parties, the state government had spent more than ₹2,600 crore to paint the buildings in the YSR Congress colours of white, blue and green.

In March, the Reddy government had moved the Supreme Court, challenging the orders of the Andhra Pradesh High Court that had stuck down the state government’s orders to paint government buildings in the three colours. The apex court had then upheld the orders of the high court.

The state government, however, retained the party colours but added another (terracotta) colour on the bottom of the buildings.

Last week, the high court found fault with this move of the state government, and summoned chief secretary Nilam Sawhney and top bureaucrats for contempt proceedings. Despite repeated orders of the high court and the Supreme Court over the last 10 months, the state government opted to seek a fresh appeal in the apex court a few days back.

The YSRCP government, which took over in May last year, first issued orders in August to paint panchayat buildings in party colours, which was contested by opposition parties in the courts. TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu demanded recovering the painting costs of over ₹2,600 crore from the ruling YSRCP.