CM of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy
The bonhomie between the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and K Chandrasekhar Rao appears to be paving the way for sorting out contentious issues between the two Telugu States.
After the AP government recently agreed to hand over its buildings located here to its Telangana counterpart, Governor E S L Narasimhan is likely to call for a meeting of Chief Secretaries and senior officials of both the states on June 24 to sort out issues arising out of the 2014 bifurcation, a senior official of AP Government said.
"The issues ranging from river water sharing to asset bifurcation and employees allocation are likely to be discussed during the meeting with (common) Governor (of both the States). Though the official agenda for the meeting is yet to be finalised, several issues are likely to be taken up," the official told PTI.
There was not much headway in some of the issues such as river water disputes, power dues from Telangana, division of public sector organisations and their employees listed under Schedule IX and X and division of electricity employees during the past five years owing to several reasons.
The YSRCP led by Jagan was swept to power in the Assembly elections held in April, ending the five-year rule of N Chandrababu Naidu's TDP.
It was no secret that Rao and Naidu don't see eye to eye.
KCR Monday personally invited Jagan to attend the inauguration of Kaleshwaram Irrigation Project built on Godavari river scheduled on June 21, for which the latter agreed.
Jagan, as the then Leader of the Opposition, had accused Telangana of diverting Godavari water and also charged Chief Minister Naidu at the time with failure to protect the State's interests.
Independent political analyst Prof Nageshwar said many of the disputes between the two States could not be resolved as TRS and TDP, the then ruling party in AP, were rival political parties in Telangana, leading to escalation of tensions.
He felt that both TRS and YSRCP appear to be friendly as each party does not have any political stake in the other state.
"Certainly, there is possibility of making a headway in some of the contentious issues between both the States.
However, both the leaders (Jagan and KCR) need to ensure that they do not compromise their political interests and also ensure the decisions they take would not lead to unnecessary criticism from respective opposition parties," Nageshwar said.
Soon after his win in the Assembly polls, Jagan along with his wife Bharathi met Rao here and invited him for his swearing-in ceremony which he attended.
As per a White Paper released by the AP government in December last year, assets worth Rs 1.97 lakh crore, related to government companies and corporations and state institutions, listed under Schedules IX and X of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 are yet to be distributed between the two states.
The dispute over division of properties of AP Bhavan in the national capital is also yet to be resolved.
