The Union Home Ministry has finally convened a meeting of officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over the pending issues relating to assurances given in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The meeting, convened after repeated adjournments since few months, discussed about the assurances given under the Schedule XIII of Section 93 of the Act covering education and infrastructure segments. The meeting comes in the backdrop of the Union Ministry expressing its dissatisfaction over the repeated postponement of the meetings of officials of the two States convened by it on one pretext or the other.

The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Union Home Ministry’s Joint Secretary Satpal Chauhan and was attended by representatives from different ministries of the Central government including Finance, Human Resource Development, Water Resources Development, Steel, Health, Housing, Power and Coal.

Through the Schedule XIII of the Act, the Centre had assured to set up a tribal university and horticulture university in Telangana on the education front. On the infrastructure front, Schedule XIII mandates examination of feasibility of setting up an iron plant in Khammam, setting up 4,000 MW power facility by the NTPC after fixing coal linkages, feasibility of establishing railway coach factory in Telangana besides strengthening the existing highway network and establishing connectivity in the backward areas of the State.

Finance Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, who is also in-charge of the reorganisation affairs, attended the meeting while senior officer L. Premchandra Reddy led the team from Andhra Pradesh. The State government, according to senior officials, made an impressive presentation on the pending issues including the steel plant and railway coach factory.

The Home Department Special Secretary is understood to have asked the Ministries concerned to explain the status of implementation of the assurances given on their behalf and submit a report soon. “The meeting was convened to take stock of the implementation of the assurances. Both the States presented their view point about the delays in the fulfilment of promises made,” a senior official who attended the meeting told The Hindu.