A new fight triggered between the two Telugu states over the sharing of APSCHE assets (Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education). The Union home ministry on Wednesday issued orders on sharing of movable and immovable assets listed under Schedule X of Andhra Pradesh re-organization act based of their location. It was also agreed that that finances pertaining to institutions will be divided in the proportion of 58 and 42 per cent between AP and TS respectively. The Union home ministry regarding the sharing of employees, said that they should continue at their present place of work. The assets value of the institutions of this schedule is around 36835 crore rupees
The TS government speeded up the efforts to take control of to take control of the assets of the other 141 institutes listed under the tenth schedule. The home ministry in its order did not mention the applicability of the order. While AP argues that the order is only for APSCHE, TS argues that it is for all the institutions.
The APSCHE order did not result in loss for AP as it doesn’t have any immovable assets but has bank balance of 135crore rupees. However, the AP government, is exploring legal options against the Union home ministry’s orders. The officials claim that the Supreme Court did not agree division of assets based on the location, so the home ministry’s order goes against the court. It also contends that both assets and liabilities, including employees, should be shared between the two states on the basis of their population.
On the other hand, to examine the course of taking over the assets of the residual institutions, TS chief secretary SP Singh convened an emergency meeting with of all departments at the Secretariat on Thursday. Subsequently, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directed the CS to meet Governor ESL Narasimhan and brief him about the orders. Singh who reached out to the Governor of the both states, requested him to ask the AP government to abide by the orders and steadfast the division of the remaining Schedule X institutions on similar lines of APSCHE. The CS also informed the governor to convene a meeting between the chief ministers of the two states to amicably resolve the issue.
As per the Reorganisation Act, there were 142 institutions listed under Schedule X, of which 128 are located in TS. Another 89 institutions are listed under Schedule IX, 80 are in TS. A rough estimation of assets is around Rs 70,000 crore. Centre had appointed Sheela Bhide committee for bifurcation of institutions under Schedule IX.
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