With APSRTC bifurcation becoming a contentious issue between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the Secretary, Union Transport Ministry, heard the views of both the States at New Delhi on Friday.
At a meeting convened at the behest of Telangana State with the Chief Secretaries of both the States – I.Y.R. Krishna Rao and Rajiv Sharma, the Telangana official reportedly proposed expediting the bifurcation process to enable the successor States to run and take policy decisions and attract investments without linking it to the other contentious issues between the two States. Mr. Rajiv Sharma also said that employees’ division should also be finalised quickly without referring to Kamalnathan Committee as its mandate was limited to the State government staff only.
While Telangana State made a case for distribution of the assets on territorial principles as provisioned in the AP State Reorganisation Act, Andhra Pradesh brought to the Centre’s notice that an expert committee headed by Sheila Bhide was already looking into the matter. It suggested to the Union Transport Department that they should wait for the expert committee’s report.
Sources said that while division of assets in the districts based on territorial location would not pose a problem, there is no agreement on apportioning assets of RTC in the headquarters. Other than Bus Bhavan, there are other buildings housing institutions catering to various requirements of the RTC personnel in Hyderabad.
While Telangana State is for division of Bus Bhavan assets alone, AP says it should have stake in the prescribed proportion in all valuable assets pertaining to the APSRTC headquarters.
The Centre assured both the Chief Secretaries that it would examine the issues raised and call for another meeting.
Telangana wants employees’ division to be finalised soon while Andhra Pradesh pitches for stake in all the valuable assets pertaining to the APSRTC headquarters
