Telangana to intensify pitch for resolution of pending reorganisation issues with Andhra Pradesh

The Hindu

a day ago

Telangana government has decided to intensify its pitch for resolution of the pending reorganisation issues with neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy is said to have asked the officials concerned to press for convening the meeting of the officials committee — constituted to expeditiously resolve the issues between the two Telugu States. Accordingly, it was decided to address a communication to the Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh asking them to fix a date and time for the meeting.
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 Andhra Pradesh power utilities to Andhra Pradesh 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. Central Government grants relating to centrally sponsored schemes credited to Andhra Pradesh accounts, Telangana's share in excess input tax credit to be availed by dealers and the share of Telangana in tax on liquor collected in May 2014 were discussed during the meeting.
However, there was no meeting of the officials committee more than six months after the first meeting in December last year. Keeping this in view, Mr. Reddy reportedly directed the officials concerned to expedite the resolution of the issues at the official level. In the event of certain issues remaining unresolved, they would be escalated to the Ministers' committee comprising Ministers from the two States as its members.
The officials' committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, was constituted last year with the then Finance Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao and Chief Minister's Office (CMO) principal secretary V. Seshadri as members on behalf of Telangana. Though Mr. Rao has been elevated as Chief Secretary subsequently, he continues to supervise the State Reorganisation affairs.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Finance department senior officials is camping in New Delhi to mount pressure on the Centre to ensure release of funds pending to Telangana. These include dues pertaining to backward regions grants fund amounting to around Rs. 1,800 crore, expenditure incurred by the State on common institutions and others that had received the consent of the Union Home Ministry.