Focus on river water as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh work on pending issues

Hyderabad: The governments of Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh are busy preparing their presentations on ways to resolve pending issues between the two states related to sharing of river waters, diverting the water of river Godavari to the river Krishna and sharing of the assets of the 9th and 10th schedule institutions listed in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

At a recent meeting, AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy asked his Telangana state counterpart K. Chandrasekhar Rao to give a report on the points of contention between the two states and what the TS government could do and what it could not in resolving these issues.

Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy said that the AP government would also prepare a report on similar lines and the two governments could then exchange reports, study them and express their opinions and views. After that, both Chief Ministers could meet at Amaravati if necessary to sort out the issues, he said.

The Chief Secretaries of both state governments were to meet around July 10 at Tirupati to discuss the pending issues, but have now decided to wait till the reports of both governments are ready.

The main problem is sharing the assets of the institutions mentioned in the 9th schedule. The Telangana state government wants the sharing of these assets on location basis, but the AP government does not agree.

For example, Road Transport Corporation has assets in all districts of AP and Telangana state, like bus depots and buildings. If sharing is on location basis, the assets located in the districts of Telangana state will go to Telangana state and the ones located in AP will go to that state. But RTC has valuable land, buildings and other assets in Hyderabad. While the AP government is ready to share the assets on location basis at district level, it does agreeable to do so in Hyderabad.

AP wants the sharing of assets located in Hyderabad in 58:42 ratio (58 per cent for AP) as mentioned in the AP Reorganisation Act. Another contentious issue is the sharing of AP Bhavan in Delhi. Here, too, the AP government wants the sharing to be in 58:42 ratio.

There are 91 institutions in the 9th schedule and they have land worth Rs 19,569 crore, buildings worth Rs 68, 173 crore, moveable assets worth Rs 9.561 crore and equipment worth Rs 34,135 crore. Most of these assets are located in Hyderabad.

If the assets located in Hyderabad are also shared on location basis, all these will go to Telangana state and AP will lose crores of rupees. AP government officials say that resolving the issues related to the 9th schedule is in the hands of the Telangana government.

When the Telugu Desam formed the government in AP, the Telangana state government went to the Supreme Court on this issue. Officials say that resolving these issues will require both Chief Ministers arriving at an amicable solution.