TDP, BJP hail AP, Telangana talks to sort differences

Vijayawada: The face-to-face dialogue by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Chief Ministers N Chandrababu Naidu and A Revanth Reddy has evoked reactions from various political parties on expected lines with YSRCP criticism drawing severe condemnation by the constituents of National Democratic Alliance.

“Talks are moving in a positive direction,” BJP leader and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay, said after the talks. “It’s a revolutionary initiative,” said TDP State president Palla Srinivasa Rao. He said Naidu’s proposal has evoked instant response from his Telangana counterpart to thrash out the differences on sharing assets and liabilities as per Ninth and 10th Schedule and beyond. Many wanted the recommendation of senior IAS officer Sheela Bhide as the basis on addressing differences over sharing Krishna water resources, corporations and infrastructure projects like ports.

He strongly deplored the ‘unfounded’ criticism by YSRCP. Jana Sena leader Peethala decried the attitude of YSRCP when there was nothing worthwhile was done during past five years.

CPI leader K Narayana described the initiative as an encouraging development and suggested drawing a roadmap by prioritising various issues and finding out an amicable solution.

YSRCP leaders Perni Nani and Gadikota Srikanth Reddy said the decision to form a committee of officials in the meeting of the Chief Ministers of AP and TG is seen as a “step backward” in addressing the issues arising from the State division. “We believe this is a time-consuming approach,” they said in a statement.

The statement pointed out: “What are the disputes between the two States? What are the unresolved issues? What assets need to be distributed? Why not move forward? What are the cases pending in the courts? Both State Governments are aware of these matters. We believe that the meeting of the Chief Ministers suggests that the new committee to identify unresolved issues will only lead to further delays in resolving these matters.”

The YSRCP leaders pointed out that the Central Government had previously constituted the Sheila Bhide Committee to implement the provisions of the Partition Act passed by Parliament. The Bhide Committee made several recommendations regarding property disputes in the combined State. Over the past decade, these recommendations have been discussed in several stages. However, some recommendations were not accepted and some of them (agreed by both the States) were not implemented by the Telangana Government.

“We believe that forming a new committee will set the discussions back to the starting point,” the YSRCP leaders said and claimed that former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during his tenure had laid emphasis before Union Home Minister Amit Shah at the meeting of the Southern States’ Chief Ministers at Tirupati on considering about the unresolved issues, as AP has seen no progress in a decade. He assured that the issues would be resolved within the stipulated time-frame with special attention.

Following this assurance, discussions on divided issues by the Chief Secretaries and officials of both States had gained momentum under the auspices of the Union Home Ministry. “We believe that forming a new committee without focusing on advancing these discussions will only result in further delays,” the YSRCP leaders claimed. They also criticised AP team for not insisting on immediate release of Rs7,000 crore due from TG towards power dues.