New Delhi: Government think tank NITI Aayog on Friday said it has sorted out the pending issues of Telangana with various union ministries.
"As a part of its mandate to promote cooperative federalism, The NITI Aayog held a meeting of senior officials from the state of Telangana and six Central Ministries to resolve a number of outstanding issues of the state vis-à-vis the ministries," NITI Aayog said in a press release. According to statement, the two-hour meeting on January 28, 2016 was chaired by Vice-Chairman, NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya.
The Aayog said it experimented with a new approach to the resolution of issues between states and central ministries by bringing the two sides face-to-face with the Vice-Chairman actively nudging them towards a possible solution.
About 20 important issues flagged by state government relating to Ministries of Coal and Power, Petroleum & Natural Gas; Environment, Forests & Climate Change, Culture, Finance and Rural Development were discussed.
At the end of the meeting, nearly all but two or three issues could be resolved to the satisfaction of both sides.
Substantial progress was made even on issues that could not be brought to full resolution during the meeting, it said. The state's special representative T Ramachandru and Special Chief Secretary Finance Pradeep Chandra expressed deep satisfaction at the outcome of the meeting and was appreciative of the initiative by NITI Aayog.
Based on the success of this experience, the Aayog stands ready to work with other interested states to help de-bottleneck their projects and programmes, it said.
In future meetings, it also intends to take up implementation or other issues the central ministries face in the states and require action by the latter, it added.
