The State Government will present a strong case before the Southern Zonal Council for speedy resolution of several issues pending since bifurcation of the State.
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A delegation of Telangana officials headed by Finance and State Reorganisation Affairs special chief secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao will attend the meeting of the standing committee of the SZC at Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday. The standing committee is meeting under the chairmanship of Kerala Chief Secretary to finalise the agenda for the next meeting of the SZC slated for August this year.
The State is upset that several issues flagged by it including the measures assured for progress and development of successor states including establishment of tribal university, release of funds for horticulture university, integrated steel plant at Bayyaram in Khammam district and rail coach factory at Warangal remained unresolved eight years after the erstwhile State was bifurcated. Issues like protection of Telangana territory from submergence effect of Polavaram project, share of Telangana from diversion of Godavari and Krishna water through Polavaram and Pattiseema projects taken up by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, modernisation of Rajolibanda diversion scheme and “unauthorised projects” taken up by Karnataka across river Krishna no doubt find place in the contents of the SZC meetings. The SZC 29th meeting was held in Tirupati in November last year.
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But these issues never came up for discussion and thus, the State continues to wait for their resolution. The action taken reports on the issues flagged in the agenda continues to draw a blank except for mentioning that concerned Union Ministries should update if the note on the action taken report and the recommendations made by the SZC are any indication.
It is in this background, Mr. Ramakrishna Rao is gearing up to raise the issue at the standing committee meeting and press for elaborate discussion at the next meeting of the SZC for an amicable resolution to the pending issues. The State’s decision comes in the light of the fact that senior officials of several Union Ministries are scheduled to attend the meeting and presenting a strong case in the standing committee will help draw the attention of the Central Government to resolving these issues.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, GAD principal secretary L. Premchandra Reddy and government’s advisor on water resources M. Venkateswara Rao are attending the meeting on behalf of the neighbouring State.