VIJAYAWADA: Concurring with the argument of Andhra Pradesh that the promotion of police officers in Free Zone in the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh should be based on the seniority as per the orders of the High Court, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the Telangana State government to take a decision in this regard.
The promotion of police officers working in the Free Zone has been a contentious issue between the two States since bifurcation.
The Home Ministry held a meeting in Delhi on Wednesday to resolve the pending issues between AP and Telangana over the institutions and corporations listed in the Schedule IX and X of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
This is the first meeting at the Home Ministry level after a year and more particularly after YS Jagan Mohan Reddy became the Chief Minister of AP.
According to an official release, the pending issue of seniority of police officers came up for discussion during the meeting. “Promotion of SI and Inspector rank officials is based on the zonal system. However, the promotion of DSP rank officials does not fall under zones. As there are more number of policemen of Andhra native working in the Free Zone, the Telangana government contended that the promotion should be given based on allocation (of officers between AP and TS) and not on seniority basis. The Home Ministry, however, did not agree to the argument of Telangana and made it clear that it should follow the HC direction and prepare seniority list for promotions,’’ the official release said.
The AP government also found fault with the provision of AP Reorganisation Act when it comes to sharing of Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) assets. AP wanted the assets of SCCL divided as per Schedule IX of the AP Reorganisation Act and the Home Ministry said it would take a decision on the contention of AP.
AP had earlier staked claim for the SCCL, which is now controlled by Telangana. Post bifurcation, the entire stake of the State was transferred to Telangana and the Andhra government had raised an objection to it, seeking division of assets and liabilities of Singareni Collieries between the two States.Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, who held the meeting with the officials of the two States, also heard their arguments on the division of institutions under Schedule IX and located in Hyderabad.
“On the issue, the Telangana government said it has no objection on division of 68 institutions and submitted a list of the same. The Home Ministry handed over the list to the AP officials,’’ the release added.
Chief Secretaries LV Subramanyam and SK Joshi along with Reorganisation Department secretaries L Prem Chandra and K Rama Krishna Rao attended the meeting.