The stage is being set for the meeting of the chief secretaries of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to resolve the pending issues relating to the AP Reorganisation Act 2014.
The first of the series of meetings is likely to be held in Vijayawada on January 16. The development follows an elaborate meeting Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had with his A.P. counterpart Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday where they announced their intent to amicably resolve the pending issues.
The proposed full-fledged meeting of the senior officials comes more than six months after the meeting of the chief advisers, chief secretaries and senior officials of the two States held on June 28. The chief secretaries of the two States met on October 9 in New Delhi and on November 4 in Hyderabad, but these meetings were aimed at resolving specific issues rather than addressing all the pending issues.
Division of assets
According to senior officials, there are more than 15 issues, including the division of assets and liabilities of the Schedule IX and Schedule X institutions pending resolution, and these issues are likely to be included in the agenda of the meeting. The other major reorganization issues included division of AP Bhavan in New Delhi, the apportionment of cash credit between the civil supplies corporations of the two States, power dues payable by Telangana power utilities to their counterparts in the neighbouring State and taxation anomalies.
The two States reached an agreement in respect of apportionment of cash credit and the Telangana government had decided to support AP in seeking adequate compensation from the Centre as assured in the Reorganisation Act.
Inter-State transfer
The Telangana government had also given its concurrence for the amendments to existing inter-State transfer policy of the employees while it is yet to give its consent for the transfer of over 700 Class III and Class IV employees working in AP Secretariat in Velagapudi and offices of the heads of departments there.
While the allocation of DSP and additional SP cadre officials and excise superintendents between the two States is almost completed, the stalemate over the division of employees of the power sector is still continuing.