Hyderabad:  Union Home Ministry convened first meeting of a three member panel constituted to resolve the bilateral issues between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on February 17^th. The dispute resolution Sub-committee will be held via video-conference to discuss the pending issues between AP and Telangana. This was announced by the Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday.

The Ministry constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Joint Secretary on February 8^th to carry out the preparatory work and recommend practical ways to resolve the bilateral issues arising out of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act-2014. The Ministry had invited Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Andhra Pradesh’s Principal Secretary (Finance) and Telangana’s Special Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao to attend the meeting.

The agenda of the meeting includes Special Category Status, which was promised to the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh. The items on the agenda include division of Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation, settlement of power utilities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, removal of anomaly in taxation matters, division of cash balance and bank deposits, cash credit by APSCSCL and TSCSCL, resource gap, development grant for seven backward districts of Andhra Pradesh covering Rayalaseema and north coastal region and tax incentives. The constitution of Sub-committee is the latest attempt by the Centre to help resolve the issues between AP and Telangana.