Chandrasekhar Rao, Jagan Mohan to meet after a long gap; rivers, power staff on table
Hyderabad: After a long time, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao of Telangana and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh are meeting on January 13 in Hyderabad. The meeting will be held at Pragathi Bhavan, the official residence of Mr Rao.
This is the third meeting between the two CMs. On the agenda are pending issues between the two states related to the state bifurcation act. They will also discuss the latest political developments in both states as well as at national level, and Mr Reddy will explain the rationale behind three capitals for his state.
The sharing of employees between the two states as a consequence of bifurcation is the most urgent item on the agenda. Two days ago, TSTransco relieved more than 200 employees who are natives of AP working in Telangana state in various power utilities. But the AP government has rejected them and told the TS government to continue employing them in its power utilities.
The sharing of assets and liabilities of several institutions listed in the 9th and 10th Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, is hanging fire for the last six years. Particularly, sharing the assets of the Road Transport Corporation (RTC), which has become more complicated.
The RTC has valuable assets in and around Hyderabad city. The AP government wants a share in these assets but the Telangana government says AP has no right to these assets. Both states are also in financial difficulties but about `6,000 crore has been locked in the banks belonging to both states.
In earlier meetings the Chief Ministers had decided to take up the linking of river waters, of the Godavari and Krishna, together. But later, both states decided to take up this project on their own within the limits of their states. So this issue may not get importance in the discussions.
Tax devolutions to the states by the central government will be up for discussion. In the current financial year both states have not received funds from the centre under tax devolutions as expected by both. They may decide to bring pressure to bear on the centre to release more funds. They will also discuss the 15th Finance Commission recommendations in terms of getting more funds from the Centre.
