Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are at loggerheads not just simply over-irrigation plans across Krishna and Godavari rivers but also over the recommencement of bus services.
Also, five months after the pause of the bus services among the two Telugu states because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no expectation of an early resumption of transport services, if the stand taken by their street transport bodies is any sign.
The disappointment of another round of talks between the officials of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State Road Transport Corporations earlier this week proves that workers should patiently wait longer for transport services to continue.
With all the restrictions on the interstate transport eliminated following the relaxation of lockdown rules, the continuation of RTC services between the twin states should have been a straightforward process.
Inter-state bus services were halted in the final week of March following the implementation of a cross country lockdown to restrain the spread of Covid-19.
Due to the relaxation of lockdown norms in the month of May, the two states continued the transport services inside their own regions yet the inter-state services stayed suspended.
Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) and Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) had come to an agreement on June 17 to continue the inter-state services.
APSRTC had come with a proposition to operate 256 bus services to Telangana and continue the remaining in a phased way.
Still, TSRTC is currently demanding that APSRTC should decrease the number of kilometres operated by its buses in Telangana.
Ever since the time Telangana appeared as a new state following bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in 2014, the inter-state passenger bus services were being operated based on the ad hoc provisions under Act 72(1) of the AP Re-organisation Act.
Ever since the inter-state RTC services were halted due to the pandemic, Telangana saw a chance to demand an appropriate inter-state agreement based on the parity to permit the continuation of services.
It is believed that in Telangana, the current plan is intensely loaded in the favour of APSRTC because of different factors, the key explanation being more travellers are going from Andhra to Telangana, particularly Hyderabad. With 450 services in Andhra Pradesh daily, TSRTC is covering just 94,048 km. Then again APSRTC is covering 3,37,603 km daily with 946 services in Telangana.
Since Hyderabad was the capital of unified Andhra Pradesh, there were, in every case, more bus services from Andhra and Rayalaseema areas to Hyderabad. Authorities state very little changed on the ground after the bifurcation of the state.
