TS government finds it tough to tackle assets

Hyderabad: Telangana state government is finding it tough to come out with amicable solutions to the long-pending division of assets and other issues related to bifurcation under Schedule IX and X between the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

Special Advisor Rajiv Sharma, who has been holding marathon meetings with top officials as a follow up of the meeting of two Chief Ministers -- K Chandrashekar Rao and Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy -- which was held on June 28, to come out with solutions to every issue.

The major challenge before the Telangana government is the payment of power dues to the AP and repatriation of about 1,000 employees who are from Andhra and continue to work in the Telangana Energy department. Majority of them are not willing to leave since they are settled in Hyderabad and Telangana districts.

The other important issue before the two states is the waiver of power dues. The AP government claimed Telangana owed Rs 5,600 crore power dues to Andhra in lieu of power purchases. While the Telangana government argues that it has to pay only Rs 2,400 crore.

Repatriation of nearly 1,200 Telangana-born fourth grade employees working in AP to Telangana state and division of DSPs rank police officials between two states were also considered as tough issues to resolve before the two governments.

Officials said that the power dues issue was referred to National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) but it asked the two states to settle the issue amicably. "The officials are struggling hard to arrive at a conclusion on how to waive the power dues by the two states without any legal complications," a senior official said.

Under Schedule IX, out of 91 organisations (mostly corporations), the division of 45 entities was already settled. The ownership of Bus Bhavan, AP Dairy, Housing Board and 4,900 acres of land allotted to Deccan Infrastructure Limited (DIL) were pending. The previous AP government demanded the bifurcation of the land so that it can be auctioned and use the money for AP development. Now, the TS government is mulling to take over the properties without any compensation to the AP.

Officials said that the special advisor in consultation with the Secretaries of the respective departments is preparing multiple solutions to address every division issue. All the proposals will be forwarded to the Chief Minister who will take a final call in the next meeting of both the chief ministers.