It was Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu’s intervention that ended the stalemate and brought about peace between the TDP and the BJP-led NDA government.
Sources said it was following a suggestion from Congress member in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad that Mr. Naidu facilitated a meeting among Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, BJP national president Amit Shah and Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Y. S. Chowdary on Friday.
The meeting apparently broke the ice with both the parties finding common ground on ways of tackling the ticklish bifurcation issues. It led to some agreement over revenue deficit, separate railway zone and Central assistance through externally-aided projects (EAPs). The Centre agreed to reimburse the revenue deficit of the first 10 months of the fiscal year 2014-15 at one go and the rest annually thereafter.
The Centre paid ₹3,979.5 crore to the State government towards the deficit for the first year, 2014-15. It also agreed to draft an action plan within the next week or 10 days to address all pending issues and come up with announcements accordingly before the Budget Session resumes on March 5.
Mr. Venkaiah Naidu played a pivotal role all through the bifurcation process and was instrumental in the inclusion of many provisions in the AP Reorganisation Act. This experience often came in handy to resolve some issues that kept cropping up before Andhra Pradesh.
