The BJP-led government at the Centre made a flip-flop yet again on the issue of granting ‘special status’ to Andhra Pradesh that was promised during bifurcation of AP in 2014.
The union home minister issued a circular on Saturday convening a three-member committee meeting on February 17 to resolve pending bifurcation issues between Telangana and AP.
According to agenda No.8 mentioned in the circular, the meeting will discuss granting ‘special status’ to AP besides ‘revenue deficit’ of AP.
This triggered speculations that Modi government has changed its stand on granting special status to AP. This is because Modi government has been consistently denying special status to AP since it came to power in 2014.
But the sudden meeting and mention of special status issue in the agenda surprised all in Telugu States.
The Telugu news channels went gaga over this circular and held debates and discussions on Modi government’s changed policy towards AP.
But within no time, the Centre issued a fresh circular on Saturday deleting ‘special status’ and ‘revenue deficit’ issues from the agenda of the meeting.
The circular stated that this meeting is aimed to discuss division of assets and liabilities of common institutions, mostly located in Hyderabad, that were listed under Schedule IX and X of AP Reorganisation Act and sharing of bank deposits of these common institutions between TS and AP.
The meeting will be attended by joint secretary of union home ministry, finance secretaries of AP and TS, SS Rawat and K.Ramakrishna Rao.