Telangana has urged the Centre to immediately intervene and settle the disputes raised by Andhra Pradesh in respect of various issues like sharing of power, water and division of funds of organisations listed in different schedules of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act.
This appeal for central intervention points to the deepening chasm between the two fledgling states, which are not seeing eye to eye on various issues. “We have written to the Centre with a request to settle the issues as per the principles of law as enshrined in the AP Reorganisation Act”, a senior bureaucrat confirmed to The Hindu.
However, the delay on Centre’s part to intervene and call a spade a spade has been a cause of concern for both the political executive and the bureaucracy in Telangana. Telangana continues to argue that the unilateral decision of Andhra Pradesh in rescinding the Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) was declared illegal by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). Yet, Andhra Pradesh continued to deny the share of power generated, officials said.
While refusing to hazard a guess on whether political compulsions were forcing the Centre in delaying implementation of the Reorganisation Act in its true spirit, an official felt that issues that appeared to be vexatious for Telangana might not be viewed as serious problems at the central level.
Currently, there are disputes over distribution of funds of organisations mentioned in Schedule 7 (various funds), Schedule 9 (corporations which take up commercial activity) and Schedule 10 (non-commercial organizations). Recently, transfer of funds of labour department from banks in Hyderabad to Vijayawada made Telangana write to banks to freeze accounts of organizations listed in Schedule 7.
Indeed, there were some efforts to bring both the States to the negotiating table. Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu met over a cup of tea at Raj Bhavan last month. This ice-breaking was followed by a meeting of the Chief Secretaries, but nothing concrete seems to have happened and the disputes have become irreconcilable at Hyderabad level.
