K Chandrasekhar Rao, Jagan Mohan Reddy will meet without any officials

Hyderabad: Chief Ministers K. Chandrasekhar Rao of Telangana state and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh are likely to have a one-on-one meeting at Pragathi Bhavan on Monday.

Till Saturday night, no official information was available in both states regarding the meeting of the two Chief Ministers. When asked, an official said, “Till now we have no information about the Chief Ministers’ meeting, except for reading about it in the media.”

In the past also, Mr Rao and Mr Reddy had met alone while the officials of both states were waiting outside.

Sources said that the two CMs were meeting on the directions of the Central government to discuss the pending issues related to the AP Reorganisation Act and bifurcation of the state. The Centre has told the two states to come to an understanding on the outstanding issues. Both governments have held discussions several times but many issues are still unresolved.

The division of employees of power utilities still hangs in the balance. The bifurcation of assets and liabilities of institutions listed in the 9th and 10th Schedules of the bifurcation Act still has to be addressed.

As usual, political issues are likely to come for discussion when Mr Chandrasekhar Rao and Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy meet. There are chances that the AP Chief Minister will brief Mr Chandrasekhar Rao about the decision to have three capitals. They may also discuss the financial assistance from the Centre as part of tax devolution and under other heads.

The CMs are likely to discuss the sharing of waters of the Godavari and the Krishna. Both governments had decided to take up the projects to link the rivers on their own.

Once TS and AP come to an understanding on sharing of the waters, they can take up new projects without any problem.