Hyderabad: Revanth Reddy, CBN discuss post-bifurcation issues

The meeting, which was held at the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan here, is learned to have discussed 10 key issues over about two hours.

Hyderabad: The Chief Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, A Revanth Reddy and N Chandrababu Naidu, who met here on Saturday, have set the ball rolling for further discussions on inter-state subjects, including resolutions of post-bifurcation issues arising out of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014.

The meeting, which was held at the Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan here, resolved to constitute a committee of officials and another committee of Ministers to disucss and chalk out measures for addressing the issues and to take forward the cooperation between the two Telugu States.

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Accordingly,  Chief Secretaries from both the States and three more members from each State would be part of the Officers Committee. Officers from both the States would meet in two weeks and discuss the way forward, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said at a press conference after the meeting.

Issues which could not be addressed at the Officers Level Committee would be raised at the Ministers’ Committee. iIn case, if any issue could not be sorted out at the Ministers’ level Committee, the same would be taken up by the Chief Ministers, he said.

During the nearly two-hour long meeting, all the issues, including Telangana’s demand for a share in TTD, coastal corridor and ports were discussed. In addition to these, all the long-pending demands like merger of seven mandals, payment of power arrears etc were also discussed, he said.

“It was also decided to convene meetings regularly in the coming days and explore possibilities for addressing the issues pertaining to both the States,” Bhatti Vikramarka said.

At the joint press conference, Andhra Pradesh Minister A Satya Prasad said that in addition to the two Committees, it was also decided to have coordination between the two States for curbing the drug menace and cyber crimes.

Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy opined that ganja was being manufactured extensively in Andhra Pradesh and was being transported to Telangana. The Andhra Pradesh government had already constituted a sub committee involving a few Ministers on the measures to be adopted for curbing drug menace, he said.

“Andhra Pradesh government is also striving to ensure a drug free society. In our State, ganja was available even in from bags of eighth standard school children,” Satya Prasad said.

For effective monitoring and regulation, it was further decided that there should be better coordination between the two States. To this effect, Additional DG rank Officers from both the States would working coordination, he said.

This meeting between the two Chief Ministers has laid foundation for a progressive way of resolving issues through dialogue, he added.

Earlier, Revanth Reddy, along with Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Ministers D. Sridhar Babu, Ponnam Prabhakar and senior officials including Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari welcomed Naidu, who had initiated the meeting through a letter he sent to Revanth Reddy on July 1. The Andhra Pradesh delegation led by Naidu included ministers Kandula Durgesh, A Satya Prasad and BC Janardhan Reddy and senior officials.