TS, AP roll up sleeves for bifurcation meet today

Hyderabad: Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governments are bracing up for strongly representing their respective stand related to various issues arising out of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh under the AP State Reorganisation Act 2014. The meeting is scheduled to be held on Wednesday.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Finance Secretary Ramakrishna Rao and other top officials are likely to represent the Telangana state while Andhra Pradesh CS Sameer Sharma and officials concerned will attend the meeting.

The previous meeting was held on September 27 but failed to bring consensus on any issue.

However, officials of Telangana said that the Centre was not heeding their request to solve the division of assets under Schedule 9 and 10 in the AP Reorganisation Act. After the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, officials said, AP has no right to claim stakes in the immovable assets in the Telangana state.

They allege that the Centre was also not taking initiative to transfer Rs 450 crore which have been transferred into the accounts of Andhra government by mistake in the initial days of the bifurcation. Telangana has been demanding for the transfer of the funds for the last eight years. The promise of the establishment of the Bayyaram steel plant, Railway coach factory in Kazipet and Tribal university were also pending. The Telangana government will raise all these issues in the meeting.

Andhra Pradesh government would raise the issue of power dues of Rs 6,000 crore from TS while Telangana is set to object to it. The TS government had claimed that the AP power utilities owed Rs 12,900 crore to Telangana. Such issues will take a centre stage in the meeting.