Telangana, Andhra Pradesh clash over water, power dues

Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh and Telangana state governments have locked horns once again. This time, over payment of liabilities and past dues of the electricity department worth Rs 450 crore as well as water dues of Rs 300 crore.

Insiders say that the dues of even Andhra Pradesh CM’s residence and the Lake View guest house are being bickered over.

The AP Reorganisation Act has not covered the issue of liabilities of individual properties, leaving behind a scope of clashes between the two states over these issues.

The problem is primarily due to the ambiguity over the issue of sharing of liabilities in the Reorganisation Act.

The old assets issue is touched upon in Section 54 (2) of the Act, but it has not been specified as to who will take care of individual liabilities.

The two states are already at loggerheads over sharing of power and water and now sharing of liabilities is emerging as another controversial issue.

The AP Reorganisation Act has specified that the liabilities will be allocated by the Centre after proper consultation and till that time the public liabilities (which means loans raised by the government for various measures) will be borne by Andhra Pradesh.

However, the status of individual liabilities has not been touched upon in the Act.

Therefore all government buildings, houses and other properties,  have become a bone of contention.

“There are electricity bills worth Rs 450 crore of government departments, including individual government properties. Some of the bills are as high as Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh for individual properties like the official residence of the Leader of the Opposition etc, which have to be cleared by the roads and buildings department,” said a source.