Andhra CM Jagan Reddy Meets Telangana Counterpart KCR to Discuss Inter-State Issues, Godavari Waters

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan met his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao here on Thursday and discussed sharing of river water and other inter-state issues.

Reddy is understood to have discussed various issues, including sharing of Godavari and Krishna river waters, division of assets and liabilities between the two states post-bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. There was no official word from the Telangana government on the meeting.

The meeting is said to be a prelude to another meeting between the officials of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, who are scheduled to meet in Delhi, according to sources. The two Chief Ministers had at their earlier meeting in June resolved to address all pending issues amicably.

Formal discussions took place between the two Chief Ministers, accompanied by ministers and respective government officials, on June 28. One of the major decisions of the CMs was to ensure that river water available to the two states is put to optimum use for irrigation and other purposes.

Both Jagan and KCR have reportedly given a nod to resolve all pending issues of bifurcation and sharing of Godavari waters as engineers from two states had already met and came up with some propositions.

Though five years have passed since Andhra was bifurcated for creation of Telangana in 2014, several issues, including division of assets and liabilities between the states, have been pending due to lack of agreement over them.

Prior to his meeting with Rao on Thursday, Jagan Mohan Reddy met Telangana Governor ESL Narasimhan at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday, official sources said. Narasimhan was the common Governor of the two neighbouring states, till the Centre recently appointed Biswa Bhushan Harichandan as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

(With inputs from PTI)