SNCN ACHARYULU
After 10 years of Andhra Pradesh State bifurcation there are several issues which are not resolved between the two Telugu states. Now all eyes are on the two Telugu Chief Ministers who are known as ‘guru and chela’. To resolve the long-pending issues between the two states, who will compromise; the guru or the chela? It is not easy to resolve these issues because they are linked with the people’s sentiments of the respective Telugu states. For example, since several years controversy is going on the Polavaram project and sharing of Godavari waters. In the combined Andhra Pradesh State, the problem was between the Telangana and Seemandhra. After Andhra Pradesh bifurcation the problem has become between the two Telugu states. The main controversy in the Polavaram project was its higeht and submerged area under this project in Khammam district of Telangana State. In 2014, the Central government merged seven villages of Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh which will effect with the construction of Polavaram project. At that time, the Prime Minister was Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister was N Chandrababu Naidu and Interestingly, now also both are in the same position. Only the change is at that time chief minister of Telangana was K Chandrasekhar Rao of the BRS and now it is A Revanth Reddy of the Congress. KCR, till his last minute as the chief minister of Telangana, fought to bring back those seven villages to Telangana which were merged in Andhra Pradesh. Now if Chief Minister Revanth Reddy compromises on this issue, the BRS will start allegations that Revanth has compromised with Andhra Pradesh at the cost of Telangana interests and the sentiment of Telangana people. If Chandrababu compromises in handing over these seven villages to Telangana, again the problem will start in completing the Polavaram project and Chandrababu will face the anger of Andhra Pradesh people who have given the mandate to him in record level. In the height of the Polavaram project and sharing of Godavari waters also both the Chief Ministers will face the same problem. After Polavaram project, another major issue is sharing of the assets of the RTC. The RTC has more valuable assets including lands in and around Hyderabad city. The Telangana government under the BRS refused to share the assets of RTC, claiming that they belong of Telangana State only and AP has no right to demand sharing of these assets. Andhra Pradesh’s argument was that these assets were developed by the combined Andhra Pradesh State government. But the Telangana government’s argument is that these assets were developed by the Nizam government. If Andhra Pradesh gets a share in these assets, it will cost some hundreds crores of rupees. The AP government, which is starving for funds will not leave it. At the Centre, the NDA government will support the AP government because the latter is also in the NDA. In Telangana the Congress is in power, which is a political enemy of the BJP at the national level. There are some more such problems between the two Telugu states.
