The Central government indicated its intention to resolve the bilateral issues between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh by constituting a committee headed by the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Asish Kumar. The first meeting of the committee has been scheduled for February 17 through video conference.
However, the two States are not optimistic about the outcomes. Asked about the possible result of this initiative, a senior Telangana official simply said: “zero.” The pessimism is not unfounded: while the initial note issued by the Home Ministry said the issue of special category status to Andhra Pradesh was part of the agenda of the meeting, a revised note issued later had no mention of special category status.
The two States have been complaining for some time about the Central government’s inaction in exercising the powers conferred on it in the Act. Section 48 of the Act says: “In case of any dispute relating to the distribution of any goods or class of goods, the Central Government shall endeavour to settle such dispute through mutual agreement arrived between the governments of the successor States for that purpose failing which the Central Government may, on request by any of the Governments of the successor States, after consulting the Governments of the successor States, issue such direction as it may deem fit for the distribution of such goods or class of goods, as the case may be, under this sub-section”. Senior officials say one of the issues pending since the bifurcation of erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh is of Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi. It is within the jurisdiction of the Centre to issue orders on the apportionment of Andhra Pradesh Bhavan, but the Centre has not taken any initiative so far.
