As the bureaucracy is racing against time to transfer assets and liabilities between the States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, concerns are being expressed over the need for a political environment to ensure smooth transition post-bifurcation.
Officials insist that a lot depends on the coordination between TRS president K.Chandrasekhar Rao and Telugu Desam president N.Chandrababu Naidu who are set to take charge as Chief Ministers of the two States on or after June 2, the Appointed Day.
The TRS chief was expecting the YSR Congress to come to power in Seemandhra, but TDP, its arch rival in Telangana made a stunning come back. This gave rise to speculation that the uneasy relations between the two parties may come in the way of resolving contentious issues amicably between the two States.
“What we are doing is mechanical bifurcation process strictly going by the provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act and distribution of assets, liabilities and employees as per prescribed norms. But a conducive environment for its success has to be created by political leaders,” they say.
River water sharing, distribution of employees recruited on the basis of Presidential Order and other key areas continue to haunt senior bureaucrats who say the sensitive issues can be tackled only with political maturity and mutual trust between the two State governments.
Tasked with the apportioning of assets, liabilities, employees, contracts and division of departments, corporations, institutions between the two States and accommodation for both the Chief Ministers and their Secretariats, the 22 official committees completed the assigned tasks in a record time and its fine tuning is expected to be over by May 24. The provisional allocation of State-level employees to Telangana is expected to be completed by May 26.
However, guidelines for allocation of All-India Services officers to both the States and final allocation of over 80,000 State-level employees are expected to be approved only after the new Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, assumes charge.
The latter is based on the options to be exercised by the State-level employees and is expected to take minimum of one year.
