Officials of both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments met for the second consecutive day at Pragathi Bhavan here on Saturday to discuss bifurcation issues related to division of assets of Schedule IX and X institutions listed in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act that have hit a roadblock and inter-State transfer of State-level employees.
Chief Secretaries of both States and Principal Secretaries of Finance and General Administration departments and State Reorganisation Cells met to discuss the bifurcation-related issues. “ The purpose of the meeting is to see what has been resolved so far and what has been stuck and discuss how they can be taken forward,” sources said.
The meeting was a follow-up on the deliberations held in a positive environment set by Chief Ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy at their meeting on Friday.
The officials, it was understood, would brief the Chief Ministers and flag the contentious issues and possible solutions and wait for their guidance and decisions. The officials of both States would meet again in a week to 10 days. The contentious issues pertaining to Schedule IX institutions are about the definition of ‘Headquarters building’ and this had led to the stalemate in the division of RTC assets and division of AP Bhavan in Delhi. Other unresolved issues were division of employees of Transco and Genco and payment of dues of over ₹1,700 crore to AP Civil Supplies Corporation. Barring RTC and a few other institutions, both States have agreed to abide by the Shila Bhide Committee recommendations.
Sources said division of assets of Schedule IX and X institutions had become knotty because of different stands taken by the AP and TS governments. “Now that an amicable mood is prevailing, the two States may opt for via media options.”
“But that will take discussions and can’t be resolved in a day or two as it will have political implications and also should gain public acceptance,” sources added.
Both States have further agreed to relax the norms for inter-State transfer of employees based on mutual and spouse grounds. The joint committee comprising the two States had already submitted certain guidelines for various posts and categories and it was in principle agreed to further relax the norms to facilitate transfer of native employees of AP and Telangana to their respective States.
Court case
The sources said a court case was pending pertaining to Schedule X institutions and if Andhra Pradesh agreed to withdraw the case, the issues could be resolved mutually and as per the norms decided by the Central Government.
Even the long-pending issue of transfer of class IV employees of Telangana working in Andhra also came up. AP Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy, at one stage, said that they would not mind paying salaries even if they moved to Telangana.
