The union home minister was chairing the 29th Southern Zone Council meeting in Tirupati.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah today said that the Centre would address the issues of the southern states on priority.
The minister was chairing the 29th Southern Zone Council (SZC) meeting in Tirupati. The SZC comprises the South-Indian states and UTs, and this meeting of the council was being held three years after the previous one. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jaganmohan Reddy welcomed Shah and other dignitaries who attended the event.
Speaking in the meeting, Shah said that the Centre would make all possible efforts to address the issues of the member states of the council in a time-bound manner, and urged the Governors and the Chief Ministers to co-ordinate with the Centre.
Telangana Home Minister Mahmood Ali, who represented the state (it really should have been the CM, but he is in the middle of a vociferous spat with the BJP ostensibly over paddy procurement), urged the Centre to address the bifurcation issues including irrigation projects, national status for Kaleshwaram or the Palamur - Ranga Reddy project, funds for development projects and the other promises of bifurcation.
Jaganmohan Reddy too urged the Centre to address the bifurcation issues as AP had faced huge losses after the split.
The meeting had 26 items on the agenda including left extremism, bifurcation of the Telugu states, border disputes, water sharing, irrigation projects, direct benefit transfers, atrocities on women and girls, programs for development, leprosy control measures, and steps to improve health infrastructure. It also discussed various welfare programs for the SCs, tribals and poor, roads and infrastructure, and funds for development, among others.
Those who participated included Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, Home Minister Mahmood Ali and Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, and delegates from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep, according to reports. Interestingly, the CMs of Tamil Nadu and Kerala too skipped the meeting, though they seem to have had more compelling reasons than their Telangana counterpart - the calamitous rains in their states.