The Central Government has convened the meeting of the Chief Secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on August 8 to discuss the issues arising out of the implementation of the AP Reorganisation Act.
In a communication, Union Home Ministry Under Secretary Lalita T. Hedaoo said the meeting is scheduled to be held under the chairmanship of the Union Home Secretary in New Delhi and the Chief Secretaries of the two States are asked to attend the meeting as per schedule. The Union Home Ministry took the initiative after the officials concerned of the two States failed to communicate a mutually acceptable date for holding a meeting to discuss the bilateral issues arising out of the implementation of the Reorganisation Act.
The Union Government, in a letter addressed earlier, expressed concern over the repeated postponement of the meeting convened by it for one reason or the other. The first meeting was scheduled on December 7 last year, but the Telangana government sought its postponement because of the Assembly elections in the State the same day. The next meeting was convened on February 1 this year, but it was postponed following a request by the AP Government which had its budget session underway.
The Centre had subsequently asked the two States to indicate a mutually acceptable date for holding bilateral discussions, but there was no response from the two governments. Vexed over the inordinate delays, the Centre communicated to the States its decision to convene the meeting again.
The meeting, if materialises, becomes all the more important since there was some movement in the resolution of the pending issues after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy agreed to adopt a give and take approach and the AP Government had in fact handed over the Secretariat buildings in its possession recently. The discussions, however, hit a road block again with the Telangana officials alleging that the AP government is continuing its stance over the division of the Schedule IX and X institutions.
