The meeting of the officers’ committee of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, constituted to resolve pending bilateral issues between the two States, is expected to see forward movement after the next Cabinet meeting on July 10.
The Telangana Government is keen on the meeting as it can expedite resolution of the issues through negotiations between the officials from the two sides. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, during the previous Cabinet meeting, directed the officials concerned to address a communication to the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh for a meeting between the officers of the two States.
The issue however, took a backseat with AP taking up the Godavari-Banakacherla project and asking the Central Government to speed up clearances and extend financial assistance for the around ₹80,000 crore project. Raising strong objections to the aggressive moves, the TG Government had mounted pressure on the Centre not to accord permissions to the project as it will harm the State’s interests.
With the Centre returning the project to Andhra Pradesh, officials are hopeful that bilateral issues between the two Telugu States will be among the key agendas of the next Cabinet meeting.
“The Chief Minister is keen on speedy resolution of the issues, preferably through negotiations between the two States. This is because approaching the Centre on these issues has proved time consuming and leading to inordinate delays,” a senior official told The Hindu.
The last meeting of the officials committee was held in Mangalagiri on December 2 last year and discussed among other things, reimbursement of salaries paid by AP power utilities to AP native employees working in Telangana, apportionment of debt of 15 externally aided projects, division of labour cess and reimbursement of expenditure incurred by the Telangana Government on the common institutions.