A meeting of the Chief Secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Somesh Kumar and Nilam Sawhney respectively ended inconclusively with no major decisions taken on key reorganisation issues like division of assets and liabilities of Schedule IX and X institutions, pending dues pertaining to various public utilities and corporations and bifurcation of employees.
The two top officials are reported to have discussed about the pending issues institution wise during the close-to-five-hour meeting that was held at the Telangana Secretariat on Thursday and the discussion mainly focused on the apportionment of assets and liabilities of Schedule IX and X institutions. Senior officials from the Transport department, power utilities, Aviation Corporation and other wings participated in the deliberations to give their version on the pending bifurcation issues.
In addition to the Chief Secretaries, the secretaries of reorganisation affairs of Telangana K. Ramakrishna Rao and AP L. Premchandra Reddy were present at the meeting. Senior officials said it was resolved to continue the discussions further so as to reach a consensus and ensure settlement of the pending reorganization issues.
“Several issues have been discussed and the discussions have been positive. We are hopeful of resolving the pending issues through similar meetings in the coming days duly briefing the two Chief Ministers about the proceedings from time to time,” a senior official who participated in the meeting said. The Telangana Government had conveyed its readiness to continue the deliberations, but officials were tight lipped when asked about the date of the next meeting.
The meeting comes in the light of the recent interaction between Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his AP counterpart Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy in which it was decided to direct the Chief Secretaries to meet frequently to iron out the differences between the two States in relation to the bifurcation issues.
It assumes significance in the light of the letter addressed by Ms. Nilam Sawhney asking the Union Home Ministry to treat the recommendations made by expert committee on Schedule IX institutions at one go rather than taking them up institution wise. The Telangana Government was however opposed treating the recommendations on Schedule IX issues as one lot as the recommendations pertaining to demerger of some corporations was unilateral and against the interests of the State.
The two States reached a broad agreement in respect of 53 of the 89 institutions listed under Schedule IX and it was resolved to shortlist another 25 institutions where there are no big differences so that the issues relating to these institutions could be resolved through mutual consent.
