The Union Home Ministry has convened a meeting with State Reorganisation Affairs officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh on Monday to discuss about the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi.
Telangana Finance and State Reorganisation Affairs special chief secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao is gearing up to present a strong case on behalf of the State over bifurcation of the AP Bhavan, with properties spread over 19.7 acres of land in the national capital valued at an estimated ₹9,908 crore. Telangana will get 8.41 acres and buildings and AP 11.32 acres, if the property is divided on the basis of population ratio 58:42.
Several options have been proposed over the bifurcation of the premium property in the past, but they were not accepted by the two governments.
During a meeting between the officials of the two States in January, the officials indicated their preferences for a new option. Accordingly, Telangana would get Sabari block (3 acres) and Pataudi House (5.245 acres) totalling 8.24 acres and Andhra Pradesh would get Godavari block (4.315 acres), internal road (0.51 acres), part of Sabari block (0.95 acres), nursing hostel (3.35 acres) and Pataudi House (2.39 acres) totalling to 11.53 acres.
The new option follows Union Home Ministry’s proposal that the entire Pataudi House measuring 7.74 acres would go to Telangana and land and buildings consisting Godavari and Sabari blocks as well as the nursing hostel, spread over 12.09 acres, would go to Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana Government is firm that the State be given Godavari and Sabari blocks spread over 8.76 acres to it.
The Andhra Pradesh Government however, objected to the new option claiming that 0.51 acres of internal road valued at ₹250 crore proposed as its share had encroachments and could not be used unless they are removed. “Therefore, if it is not possible to remove all encroachments, Government of AP needs to be compensated by providing equivalent land either in the Sabari block or Pataudi house block,” AP Government said in its letter to the Union Home Secretary.
In this background, Monday’s meeting convened by the Union Home Ministry assumes significance as the Telangana Government is firm on expeditious resolution of the vexatious issue, which had been hanging in balance for close to 10 years.
