Governor bid to break the ice on asset division

Hyderabad: To break the deadlock on the contentious asset distribution between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh through a dialogue, Governor E S L Narasimhan convened a joint meeting with the representatives of the two States on Wednesday at Raj Bhavan.

Official sources said that the issues ranging from dispute on the ownership of AP Bhavan in New Delhi, division of assets owned by the various Corporations in the undivided AP which are listed under schedule X of the AP Re-Organisation act, water sharing and construction of new irrigation projects by the two States on river Krishna and Godavari, power supply to Telangana from power plants in AP as per AP State Re-organisation Act would be discussed in the meeting.

The TS government is expected to raise the issue of AP handing over the blocks that were allotted to them during the State bifurcation. The AP government had vacated those blocks in the Secretariat. Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao and Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy would represent the Telangana government at the meeting and from Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Development Minister D Uma Maheswara Rao and Chief Whip K Srinivasulu would participate in the meeting.

Sources said that the Governor would also review the status of distribution of assets, division of State cadre level employees, pending cases in the courts with regard to water sharing and recent Brijesh Kumar tribunal directions on allocation of Krishna water between two States and the objections raised by the Telangana government in detail. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao called on the Governor on Monday morning and is learnt to have given his opinion on the contentious issues.