TeaThere seems to be no end to the war of words between the leaders of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
In recent times, Hyderabad and Polavaram Project The subjects of controversy were; Now, comments by senior Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader, T. Harish Rao, who holds the finance and health portfolios, has triggered a war of words between the neighboring states. Addressing teachers at the state teachers’ union meeting in late September, Mr. Rao said Telangana was paying the highest salaries to government employees among the states. He claimed that the state government had paid 73 per cent fitment to government employees in just five years, which the Andhra Pradesh government did not.
Senior leaders and ministers of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government slammed Mr Rao for his “unnecessary comments”. Andhra Pradesh Industries Minister Gudivada Amarnath said that Mr. Rao should settle his differences with his maternal uncle and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao instead of commenting on Andhra Pradesh. He wondered whether criticizing the Andhra Pradesh government would give any political advantage to the TRS in Telangana. Pointing out that Telangana was in a better financial position than Andhra Pradesh as it had Hyderabad, Mr Amarnath alleged that the TRS government had done nothing in the last eight years of its rule. He said that the Andhra Pradesh government is implementing many welfare schemes for the poor irrespective of their financial condition. He asked what welfare schemes the TRS government was implementing in spite of its better financial condition.
The dispute has erupted even as the standoff continues between the two states over the problems of partition. A meeting was recently convened by the Union Home Ministry to resolve the unresolved matters of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh stick to their stand on important issues like division of institutions under Schedule X, Andhra Pradesh State Finance Corporation, and Split of Singareni Collieries Company Limited.
Mr Rao’s comments were not only met with anger in Andhra Pradesh. The Union Ministry of Jal Shakti reacted strongly to the claims by Mr. Rao and his colleague, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister E. Dayakar Rao that Telangana’s flagship Mission Bhagiratha project received the National Award.
The ministry replied that there were misleading reports that the Center had reviewed the plan through the Jal Jeevan Mission; Inspections were conducted at random in 320 villages to study the project; And each household was getting 100 liters of quality drinking water per person. The ministry said it has not made any such assessment. To observe whether the tap connections provided to all the households were working effectively became part of its functional assessment 2022. This was one of several parameters, it said. Further, data from 12,570 sampled households in 409 villages showed that 8% of them were not getting 55 liters of water per person per day, which is an important parameter under the Jal Jeevan Mission. The ministry said that the water quality in 5% of the villages is not as per the standards prescribed under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Though the state government had submitted a report stating that the state had 100% tap water connection, this was not confirmed by the gram panchayats as per the Jal Jeevan Mission norms.
These developments suggest that the TRS government would do well to focus on governance rather than comparing itself with the Andhra Pradesh government, criticizing others and making baseless claims on projects. It would be better for the political leadership to focus on improving welfare and development indicators and mitigating the problems of the poorer sections.
Equal focus should be on resolving pending partition issues such as division of cash balances as well as division of assets and liabilities between the two states. This is particularly significant as differences between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are not being resolved despite efforts by the chief ministers as well as the administrative machinery over the past eight years.