Andhra Pradesh, Telangana utility bill sharing to start new controversy

Hyderabad: A fresh controversy is brewing between the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments over sharing of power, water and maintenance charges, for all offices located in the Common Capital area of Hyderabad.

The contentious issue will come to a head in July.

While there are still issues regarding sharing common accommodation by officers, the issue of payment of bills has been added to the woes.

For instance, in the undivided state all such bills for power, water and maintenance were vested with the head of the departments, who in turn raised invoices for the Pay and Accounts Officer to be paid.

Now with the division of the state from June 2, the monthly power and other bills for June is expected in the first week of July.

But officials, especially from AP, are clueless as how to raise the payments.

The Bifurcation Act that was passed by Parliament is silent on this important aspect, except it has said suitable accommodation for AP offices in the common capital area shall be decided by the Governor in consultation with the Telangana Chief Minister.

If it is rent-free accommodation, AP offices need to share the bill proportionately. It needs to be decided whether it is based on assets and liabilities.

There is no clarity on whether it will be based on utilisation of space.

Though there are separate Legislative Houses for both the states, all are being considered as one entity.

Similarly, in the legislators’ hostels separate blocks were earmarked for both the states and some of the legislators from one state are staying in the hostels allotted to the other state.

“The dilemma is how to account for all these, as we cannot order eviction of the members and ask them to shift to another block, since many legislators are using their present accommodation.

For instance TD leader Erraballi Dayakara Rao is staying in the block allotted to the AP Legislature,” said a senior official from the legislative department.

A top official of AP government said “As of now there is no specific rule on what to do, but it is an unwritten law that whoever occupies the particular office needs to make payments.”

He also said if the Telangana government raises the issue of payments, appropriate decisions will be taken.