The bifurcation bugbear

News: Recently, Central government instituted a committee to resolve the bilateral issues between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

What are the pending issues between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh?

Complaints over Centre’s inaction in exercising powers conferred upon it in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014

– Dispute over distribution of goods: The two states have been complaining about the lack of action by Central Government on the Section 48. According to this, the central government should settle any dispute on distribution of goods or class of goods by a mutual agreement with the governments of the successor states. Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi is a perfect example of this, where Centre hasn’t taken any action or initiatives so far.

– Section 108 (1): The act says that If any difficulty arises in implementing the provision of the act, the President can issue an order if it’s necessary and not inconsistent with the provisions. But no such order has been made till date.

– Delimitation of the Assembly constituencies: Section 26(1) of the Act says that the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of the successor States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana shall be increased from 175 and 119 to 225 and 153. But, still no action on it by the centre.

Infrastructure projects: Several infrastructure projects assured to the two successor States in Schedule XIII of the Act remain on paper. Some of these are setting up of steel factories in both the States by SAIL, a port at Dugarajapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in phases, and a rail coach factory in Telangana.

Source: This post is based on the article “The bifurcation bugbear” published in The Hindu on 15^th February 2022.