Aware of the pitfalls of deciding the bifurcation issues between Telangana and the rest of the Andhra Pradesh, the government is expected to constitute several tribunals and hand over all contentious issues to them instead of resolving them itself.
The committee of secretaries that sat for a brainstorming session on Friday to take stock of the assets and liabilities and to discuss how to divide them between the two prospective states were of the considered opinion that the government should constitute various tribunals and hand them over the contentious issues relating to division of water, power, coal, gas and petroleum and mines. The committee also decided to recommend division of government employees through Article 371D of the Constitution.
Sources said the group of ministers headed by Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde will soon take a call on this proposal.
The government has asked the committee of secretaries to settle the issues by November 5 so that it can hurry through the final drafting of the State organising bill and bring it in the winter session of the parliament that is slated to take place in December.
Sources told dna that the government does not want to risk the gains by making either of the parties angry.
“Given the volatile situation in Andhra Pradesh, any decision taken by the central government on these contentious issues can prove to be dangerous inviting violent agitations. We have already seen it happening in Seemandhra region. Decisions taken by tribunal are usually not construed as biased by interested parties and are more amenable,” sources said.
Ministries concede that issues related to water, coal, power, mines, petroleum and gas are going to be very difficult to decide as they have several difficult parameters to decide and both the parties would like to have better share of the assets.
“Many assets fall on the boundaries of the two prospective states and are likely to create heartburn. For example the Nagarjuna dam and Sreeseelam project fall on both sides of the border and it will be difficult to decide who benefits should accrue to,” sources said.
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