Hyderabad: The Centre has convened a meeting of top officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on November 23 to discuss unresolved issues between the two states as per Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked chief secretaries of both the Telugu states to attend the meeting to be held in Delhi.
Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla will preside over the meeting which will discuss the pending issues after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. The meeting is seen as another fresh attempt by the Centre to address the pending issues. Under the Reorganisation Act, all post-bifurcation issues have to be sorted out in 10 years.
The previous meeting between the two states was held on September 27 but it was inconclusive. As many as 14 pending issues were discussed. Of them, seven were related to the inter-state issues between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The remaining issues include financial assistance to the AP capital city, grants to the backward regions development and other assurances given under the Reorganization Act.
The Union Secretary directed the Home Ministry to examine all the court cases regarding sharing of assets in consultation with the law department. During the meeting, Andhra Pradesh demanded its share in land parcels, buildings and bank reserves of common institutions located in Hyderabad in the ratio of 52:48 between AP:TS, in proportion with their population.
These institutions listed under Schedule IX (corporations etc) and X (training institutes) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 are worth several thousands of crores of rupees. Telangana opposed the demand. Andhra Pradesh also demanded a share in Singareni Collieries, evoking protest from Telangana.
Telangana officials expressed their unhappiness over Andhra Pradesh approaching courts on bifurcation Act issues, creating legal complications and blocking the division of these institutions. They demanded that the Centre take steps to make Andhra Pradesh withdraw the cases and sort out issues through talks. The Centre had revealed during the last meeting that Rs 1,500 crore were provided for the development of Amaravati as the state capital of Andhra Pradesh. The state government had sought another Rs 1,000 crore for development works.(IANS)
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