Hyderabad: After five years of bitterness and acrimony, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will now solve all inter-state disputes in a give-and-take approach and amicable atmosphere. Interestingly, the two states will now avoid the mediation of the Centre as well as settle the issues obviating litigation before the Supreme Court and the High Court.
As a first step of the mutual friendship, the two states had resolved a major issue of vacant buildings in the Secretariat of Telangana in Hyderabad this week. As part of an agreement, the Andhra government has handed over five vacant blocks in the Secretariat to the Telangana government and the latter had waived arrears of electricity and water bills that ran into around Rs 10 crore.
This has become possible thanks to the personal bonding between Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR) and his Andhra counterpart Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. Ever since Jagan has won the Andhra Assembly elections in a landslide victory, KCR has been making gestures to indicate that a new chapter of friendship has started between the two states carved out of combined Andhra five years ago.
“After a nightmarish past of five years, now we see a ray of friendship and harmony between the two states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh which is now led by a young leader Jagan Mohan Reddy. We have decided to resolve all outstanding bifurcation issues through talks in a give-and-take approach. We will even avoid the mediation of the Centre and the courts,” said KCR after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
This new-found bonhomie between the two CMs will definitely be a relief to the Centre which has been trying to resolve the bifurcation-related issues through Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan’s mediation in the last five years. As KCR and former CM Chandrababu Naidu had refused to sit together and talk to each other, the Governor found it difficult to find a way out to the pending issues.
The issues include handing over vacant buildings in the Secretariat premises, distribution of around 100 institutions which were common to both the states, sharing of waters of Godavari and Krishna rivers, dividing the funds belonging to both the states, transferring of employees stuck in other state and dividing the land and buildings in AP Bhavan in Delhi. Governor Narasimhan made several futile attempts in the past to persuade both the CMs to sit and solve the issues in his presence, but he couldn’t succeed, largely because of hostile atmosphere between them. This hostility sprang from the political rivalry between TRS and TDP in Telangana. Of course, TDP is now decimated in Telangana after its poor show in the December Assembly elections.TDP hasn’t contested the April Lok Sabha elections in Telangana as it could not find enough base and candidates. However, Jagan’s YSR Congress has withdrawn from Telangana since 2014 elections and it happily agreed to its two MLAs and lone MP P. Srinivas Reddy’s defection to TRS five years ago. Jagan never tried to create trouble for KCR, as Naidu is their common enemy.
Not just solving the pending issues through talks, now KCR is readying to don a new avatar—of advising Jagan on properly utilising the waters of Godavari and Krishna to irrigate each acre of parched lands in Andhra and Rayala Seema. “I told Jagan recently that we can use the abundant waters of Godavari to irrigate nook and corner of Andhra,” KCR said.
Keeping their good relations, Jagan attended the inaugural of the prestigious Kaleswaram multi-stage mega lift irrigation project over Godavari River in Telangana on Friday. The project is built at a cost of around Rs 80,000 crore.
This is KCR and Jagan’s fourth meeting in the last one month. First, Jagan met KCR to invite for his swearing-in ceremony at Vijayawada on 30 May next at the swearing-in ceremony, then KCR went to Amaravati to invite Jagan to the inauguration of the Kaleswaram project ation project.