VIJAYAWADA: The first meeting of the Dispute Resolution Sub-Committee constituted by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to discuss the pending issues between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on February 17, has snowballed into a controversy with the revision of agenda.
A communication sent to the AP and Telangana governments by the MHA on Saturday morning, contained nine items on the agenda for discussion. They included Special Category Status to AP and filling of resource gap. By night, the MHA revised the agenda by excluding the SCS and three other items. The ruling YSRC alleged that it was done at the behest of BJP Rajya Sabha MP GVL Narasimha Rao.
In the morning, YSRC MPs, Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and several MLAs went to the town claiming that it was the result of relentless fight of the YSRC, its leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and the government which made the MHA include the SCS issue on the meet agenda. Narasimha Rao wondered as to how the SCS could be included on the agenda when it was not an interstate issue.
Between the developments in the morning and evening, sources within the party admitted that they had committed a blunder by taking credit of the SCS issue figuring on the agenda.
“Had the SCS and resource gap issue not figured on the agenda, the YSRC could have raised the same and cornered the Centre,” sources said.
Items on initial agenda
YSRC blames defected TDP leaders in BJP for ‘anti-AP stand’
The BJP, on its part, jumped into the scene to control any damage that the YSRC claims could have done and got the agenda changed.
The sub-committee was constituted following a decision taken in the Southern Zonal Council meeting held at Tirupati in November last year. The committee comprises a joint secretary rank officer in the MHA, Principal Secretary (Finance) SS Rawat and Special Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao from AP and Telangana respectively. It was constituted to carry out the preparatory work and recommend practical ways to resolve the bilateral issues arising out of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Claiming credit of reviving an issue which the Opposition TDP said was a thing of past, Sajjala said the YSRC had stuck to its stand on the issue and raised it in Parliament, besides adopting a resolution in the State Assembly.
Even as the YSRC went to the town trumpeting its ‘victory’, Narasimha Rao wondered as to how the SCS could be discussed at the meeting when it was in no way concerned with Telangana. “YSRC MPs were claiming victory and when I enquired what it was, I got to know that it was inclusion of the SCS and resource gap on the agenda. Wondering as to how the issue could be taken up, I spoke to senior officials (in MHA) and was told that the committee was constituted to look into interstate disputes only,” Narasimha Rao said.
He, however, said they want financial aid from the Centre for the development of AP and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi too expressed his concern over the manner in which the State was bifurcated. Hours after Narasimha Rao came up with the ‘clarification’, the MHA revised the agenda, excluding the SCS, resource gap and two others from the nine-point agenda.
The YSRC camp, which was taken aback after being jubilant since the morning, minced no words in lashing out at Narasimha Rao and blamed the former TDP leaders, who are in the BJP now for their ‘anti-AP stand’. “We could not understand as to why Narasimha Rao could not digest the Centre taking up an issue concerned the development of the State.
The TDP too failed to make a single statement welcoming the inclusion of SCS on the agenda and it seems leaders like CM Ramesh and Sujana Chowdary, who are close to TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and defected to the BJP, are behind the revision of the agenda at the behest of Naidu,’’ YSRC spokesperson Ambati Rambabu said.
“It seems the MHA does not know the agenda of the committee it constituted. Even if the SCS and resource gap are not related to both the States, it could discuss the same with the AP officials,” Rambabu felt. The promised SCS was not included in the AP Reorganisation Act.
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