Centre agrees to resolve all issues of AP at SZC meet

Tirupati: The Centre has responded positively to the suggestion of the State Government to resolve the long-pending issues raised by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy at the 29th Southern Zonal Council meeting on Sunday.

The Chief Minister urged the Centre to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of the Union Home Minister to resolve inter-state issues in a time-bound manner. Union Home Minister Amit Shah responded saying the Centre would certainly find a solution to all those problems. 

He said that for the country's overall development, the robustness of the Centre-State and inter-state relations was of paramount importance. "I, therefore, emphasize the need to work towards a mechanism that ensures amicable and time-bound settlement of issues that exist between the parties," Reddy said.

In his address, Jagan expressed regret that all issues between AP and Telangana remained unresolved even seven years after the State was bifurcated. "The State bifurcation was conditional on the commitment to accord Special Category Status. However, despite the passage of several years, that key commitment is yet to be honoured. This delay had caused immense economic hardships and deprivation," he said.

The Chief Minister referred to the Centre's failure to bridge the resource gap, approve the revised cost estimate for the Polavaram multipurpose project, complete the legal division of assets valued approximately at Rs 1,42,601 crore, as listed in Schedules 9 and 10 of the APRA, 2014.

"This is hampering their functioning and resulting in adverse impact for the State and requires immediate intervention of the Centre," he said.

The Chief Minister said the Telangana power distribution companies owed an amount of Rs 6,112 crore to the AP Power Generation Corporation for power supplied from June 2014 to June 2017. Since the Union government "compelled" AP to supply power to Telangana but now it says that the amount would be paid along with the demerger plan for electricity utilities.

The Chief Minister also sought full funding for Polavaram project and the completion of the project by the Government of India. He also requested to accord Special Category Status to the State.

He said that the unprecedented move of reducing the borrowing limit to accommodate for the so-called over borrowing pertaining to a 5-year period of the previous Government, particularly during these extraordinary times caused by the outbreak of the pandemic, would debilitate the fiscal health of the State.

He also urged the Centre to take suitable steps to settle dues of Rs 338.48 crore from the Tamil Nadu government on account of infrastructure and cost associated with operation and maintenance of the Telugu Ganga project which has been pending for 10 years.