Hyderabad: The crucial meeting between the chief ministers of the two Telugu-speaking states ended on a positive note on Saturday, with the decision to form two committees- one involving the ministers of the two states, and the other comprising officials from the two states.
The decision was taken to resolve the long-standing issues between the two states which arose after the bifurcation of the undivided Andhra Pradesh.
According to Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka, another important decision was to establish a coordination between AP and Telangana to curb the flow of narcotics across the border, by having the additional director generals of the narcotics bureau in the two-states work together.
Highlight of the meeting between the two CMs
Telangana CM Revanth gifting AP CM Chandrababu Naidu the book “Naa Godava” penned by revolutionary poet and writer Kaloji Narayana Rao was the highlight of the event, as it attains significance because of Kaloji being among the first of the Telangana ideologues who had envisioned the formation of the new state way back in the 1940s.
The revolutionary poet that he was, he is still remembered for the writings in his book “Naa Godava,” where he wrote,” If an outsider does injustice to Telangana, they should respectfully be escorted out of the boundaries of the state. But if an insider does wrong, that person should be buried in the ground,” as if ” unko zameen mein gaad dena chaahiye,” in this very land called Telangana, which was part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State.
While the political pundits and conspiracy theorists will be busy for the next couple of days deciphering the meaning behind Revanth’s move, Chandrababu Naidu certainly didn’t receive the book gifted by Revanth with humility. He had that embarrassed and arrogant smile on his face while receiving the historic book.
His face was captured by the cameras with a look that seemed to be disapproving of Kaloji, whom the people of Telangana see as the architect of the Telangana Movement which had claimed more than 1,200 lives.
“Naa Godava,” translated into English as “my fight,” chronicles the injustice meted out to Telangana under the imperial rule of Andhra Pradesh, after a major part of the erstwhile Hyderabad State was forcefully merged with AP on November 1, 1956.
Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu arrived at Jyotiba Phule Praja Bhavan at around 6.10 pm, and was welcomed by Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy, Deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, chief secretary Santhi Kumari, and a few ministers including D Sridhar Babu and Ponnam
Prabhakar.
Division of various state-run institutions and corporations of the undivided state, that were listed in Schedule IX and Schedule X of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act (2014), were among the issues primarily discussed during the meeting that lasted for 1.45 hours.
The discussion took place in an harmonious environment, with both the state governments getting into a mutual understanding that the issues needed to be resolved without hurting the interests of either of the states.
Among the issues primarily discussed were the distribution of assets and liabilities of various institutions that were part, and also not part of the Reorganisation Act. Power purchases and outstanding payments for power purchases between the two-states were discussed.
Discussions also happened on the fifteen irrigation projects that were constructed in the undivided AP with foreign funding, and the debts that were incurred between the two-states post bifurcation.
There were also discussions that happened on certain buildings in Hyderabad, that were allotted to AP during the bifurcation.
The allocation of government employees between the two states was also discussed.
Taking the initiative for the talks, Naidu had written to Revanth Reddy last week, proposing a face-to-face meeting on July 6. Revanth Reddy, who had welcomed Naidu’s proposal, invited him for a ‘tete-e-tete’ the very next day.
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