Governor E. S. L. Narasimhan on Monday advised the Chief Ministers of Telangana and AP, K. Chandrasekhar Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu, to thrash out contentious issues by holding discussions directly instead of delegating it to respective Ministers.
“It will be better if both of you directly deal with serious issues instead of asking the Ministers to sort out matters,” the Governor was quoted as telling the two leaders after ‘At Home’ hosted by the latter at Raj Bhavan.
Raj Bhavan became the platform for the two Chief Ministers to sit down and discuss issues concerning the two States. After the national anthem was played and all invitees left Raj Bhavan, the two Chief Ministers remained closeted with the Governor for nearly 45 minutes and left the place at 7.18 pm.
Sources said unlike the war of words between the two leaders in the past few months on several inter-state issues, the meeting was cordial and to a large extent ‘fruitful’ too. “Both of them discussed topical issues,” the sources said.
The Governor’s observation apparently came after a series of meetings convened by him with the Education Ministers of the two States failed to find a solution. The Eamcet imbroglio continued to engage the attention of AP and Telangana as both sides announced their own dates for conduct of Common Entrance Tests. At the same time, sharing of Krishna waters continued to be a contentious issue. The latest controversy on release of water from the Nagarjunasagar project also caused concern. Power is another issue that has led to raging differences between the neighbouring States.
Emerging from the meeting, Governor said: “We are all happy together. The Republic Day parade of both the States was good.” Asked whether any inter-state issues came up for discussion, he remarked: “Everything is fine.”
Earlier, bonhomie marked the presence of both the CMs at Raj Bhavan.
