The next meeting for continuing the dialogue between the chief secretaries of the two Telugu States — Telangana and Andhra Pradesh — to resolve pending bifurcation issues appears to be unlikely any time soon.
The administration of the two States will be engaged in the Budget session for most part of the current month and this is expected to keep senior officials busy till the time the Budget of the respective States is passed by their legislatures. The two chief secretaries Somesh Kumar of Telangana and Nilam Sawhney of AP met at the BRKR Bhavan on January 30.
The meeting follows the instructions of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his AP counterpart Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy who resolved to iron out the differences and evolve mutually agreeable solution to the pending bifurcation issues. The two top officials discussed several pending issues, including the persisting differences on bifurcation of the Schedule IX and Schedule X institutions, during the close to six-hour meeting.
The minutes of the meeting is, however, said to be still under finalization and the fixing the date for the next meeting would not be possible till the exercise is completed. “The minutes of the meeting give clarity about the issues on which there is broad-based agreement. This will be helpful in understanding the issues where differences still persist and thereby, finalise the agenda for the next meeting for continuing the dialogue,” a senior official told The Hindu.
Stalemate over the bifurcation of the Schedule IX and X institutions between the two States continues as Telangana gave its consent for division of assets and liabilities of 68 out of the 89 institutions while the neighbouring State gave its consent only for 53. The Union Home Ministry has directed the two States to settle the differences pertaining to these institutions on case-by-case basis with mutual discussions.
The Andhra Pradesh government addressed a letter to the Centre asking it to treat the entire recommendations made by the expert committee headed by Shila Bhide as one lot. The Telangana government, however, objected to this claiming that it had objections to certain recommendations made by the panel that were unilateral and in favour of AP. “The differences still persist. That is why the Union Ministry favoured case-by-case resolution. But this will be possible only if the meetings between the two States continue,” a senior official said.
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