Hyderabad
Even seven-and-a-half years after Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated, Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh are yet to reach a consensus over the distribution of various organisations common to the two states, including their assets and liabilities.
A meeting of the chief secretaries of the Telugu states, convened by Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla in virtual mode on Wednesday to resolve the contentious issues, made no headway.
The meeting was attended by Telangana chief secretary Somesh Kumar and Andhra Pradesh chief secretary Sameer Sharma, along with senior officials of various departments.
An official note from the Andhra Pradesh government said the meeting focused primarily on 10 contentious issues related to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, such as AP State Financial Corporation, Singareni Collieries Company Ltd and its subsidiary AP Heavy Machinery Engineering Ltd, Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, tax dues and refunds as mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The issues of division of cash balances, bank deposits and power bill arrears due to be paid by Telangana discoms to Andhra Pradesh power generation corporation also came up for discussion.
The Union home secretary asked the two state governments to come to a mutual agreement on the contentious issues. “The central government would extend all cooperation to the Telugu states in resolving the issues,” the official note, quoting Bhalla, said.
{{/usCountry}}The Union home secretary asked the two state governments to come to a mutual agreement on the contentious issues. “The central government would extend all cooperation to the Telugu states in resolving the issues,” the official note, quoting Bhalla, said.
{{/usCountry}}As many as 89 institutions, including corporations and cooperative societies, were listed in Schedule 9 and 107 government organisations in Schedule 10 of the AP Reorganisation Act. Many of these organisations and societies were divided between the two states. But there has been disputes over many other organisations, mostly located in Hyderabad, their assets and liabilities.
Among the 107 institutions listed under Schedule 10, more than 90 institutions are located in Hyderabad, which was the capital of undivided Andhra Pradesh for nearly six decades. All these institutions together have assets worth thousands of crores of rupees in the form of buildings, lands and bank deposits, on which both the governments are staking claim.
Telangana has been claiming that as per the provisions of the AP State Reorganisation Act, it has absolute control over the institutions located in Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh has been demanding that the properties of these institutions be divided on the basis of population ratio.
The Andhra Pradesh government has also been insisting on the division of AP Bhavan in New Delhi on the population ratio basis. The Telangana government proposed to take over the entire complex and offered a suitable piece of land to Andhra Pradesh for the construction of a new AP Bhavan complex.
At the Wednesday’s meeting, the Andhra Pradesh government reiterated its demand for securing payment of power bill dues of ₹6,015 crore to be paid by the Telangana discoms to AP Genco. However, Telangana officials say the total outstanding was only ₹3,442 crore, after deducting the dues to be paid by AP discoms to Telangana Genco.
AP chief secretary Sameer Sharma also raised the issue of the Centre extending financial assistance to the state towards resource gap funding for 2014-15, increased funding for Polavaram major irrigation project, setting up of crude oil refinery and petro-chemical complex, development of Ramayampatnam port and Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial corridor.