In a show of resolve to sort out all the pending issues related to bifurcation of combined Andhra Pradesh, chief ministers of Telangana and AP are apparently moving ahead to settle the differences over the division of assets of Schedule IX and X institutions within a month.
The issues related to division of assets of some key institutions between the two States which ran into a road block as they interpreted the provisions under the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act, 2014 (APSRA) differently and the Centre, which was supposed to step in and adjudicate, did not give clarity either in the last five years.
The process is set to gain momentum after the good will gesture shown by AP Chief Minister in conceding the request of Telangana government to handover the Secretariat and head of department buildings allotted to AP under the APSRA.
The discussion on Secretariat and HoD buildings is believed to have taken place when Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy met at the Iftar hosted at the Raj Bhavan by the Governor two days ago. But none expected that the Governor would issue the proceedings on Sunday itself.
AP prepared
Interestingly, the AP General Administration Department issued a circular marked ‘very urgent’ on May 31 itself directing all the senior officials of Secretariat departments and Peshis to prepare a list and shift all important documents, valuable furniture, electronic goods and computer systems from Hyderabad to Velagapudi and handover the keys to the GAD by June 3. After that, the left over documents, files and disposables would be deemed discarded and disposed of.
Thus, after the election results were announced on May 23, apparently the political heads of Telangana and AP gave a thought for the resolution of pending bifurcation issues and came to an informal understanding which was taken forward.
Common capital
Andhra Pradesh got J, K, L and South H and North H Secretariat blocks and 50% of floors in the buildings of HoDs in the common capital of Hyderabad under APSRA. However, after the then Chief Minster N.Chandrababu Naidu shifted his Secretariat to Velagapudi near Vijayawada , only skeletal staff operated from AP Secretariat blocks and HoDs in Hyderabad. Some of the HoDs are located in Burugula Ramakrishna Bhavan, Hermitage Complex, DGP office, AP Film Development Corporation, I and PR department, HODs of Commercial Taxes, Panchayat Raj, Transport, Irrigation, Education departments, CCLA building, Vidyut Soudha, AP Vaidya Vidhan Parishad etc.
The Secretariat blocks allotted to AP soon got neglected and fell into disuse. Barring one or two chambers in the L Block and South H Block used regularly by two officials dealing with State Reorganisation under GAD, rest of the blocks allotted to AP remained under lock and key. But the previous AP government preferred to keep them though Telangana government made a representation to the government to allot the buildings back to Telangana as AP Secretariat had been moved out.
AP sources here said that they did not get any instructions as yet when to handover the buildings under their control but Telangana sources said that they expect the handing over process to be completed in a week.
