The first-ever meeting between the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, A Revanth Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu, on July 6 has generated excitement in both the Telugu-speaking states. With Reddy accepting the meeting proposal of his counterpart and inviting Naidu for a tete-a-tete in Hyderabad, the decks are cleared for the first meeting between the two leaders. It was Naidu who took the initiative with a letter to his Telangana counterpart proposing a meeting to discuss matters of mutual interest between the two states. The TDP chief, who became the first chief minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh in 2014, noted that it has been ten years since the bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. Reddy, in his reply, agreed that it was imperative to resolve all pending issues of the Bifurcation Act.
The two states remained embroiled in a row over the sharing of Godavari and Krishna waters. Both aggressively pursued irrigation projects on the two rivers and accused each other of violating past agreements and the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act. A tense situation was created between police forces of the two states on November 30 last year at Nagarjuna Sagar Dam across the Krishna River after Andhra Pradesh officials forcibly released water for their state. The Centre had intervened to deploy the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and handed over control of the dam to the Krishna River Water Management Board (KRMB).
Many issues remained unresolved under the Andhra Pradesh State Reorganisation Act 2014. Several meetings of the two states called by the Centre failed to resolve them. These include the division of assets belonging to 23 corporations mentioned in the 9th Schedule of the Reorganisation Act. Road Transport Corporation and State Finance Corporation are among the key bodies. The two states also differ on the division of assets of 30 institutions mentioned in the 10th Schedule of the Act. These include Raj Bhavan, High Court and Lok Ayukta. Andhra Pradesh has been demanding its share in land parcels, buildings and bank reserves of common institutions located in Hyderabad in the ratio of 52:48 between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in proportion to their population.
The past association of Naidu and Reddy makes the upcoming meeting on July 6 different from the attempts made during the last ten years to resolve the issues under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. Reddy had worked in the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) as MLA under Chandrababu Naidu in united Andhra Pradesh and also later in Telangana. Though Reddy charted his own course by joining the Congress party in 2017, the past equation between the two leaders has generated excitement around their upcoming meeting. Reddy’s prompt response and his invite to Naidu for the face-to-face meeting in Hyderabad have raised hopes of a solution to post-bifurcation issues.
