Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary IYR Krishna Rao today met with President Pranab Mukherjee and raised concerns of the State post bifurcation and wanted status quo ante with regard to institutions and implementation of Section 8.
In a representation to the President in Hyderabad, the Chief Secretary said the bifurcation was done in haste without anticipating the post-bifurcation problems and setting up a proper Institutional Mechanism to resolve these issues.
He said, “This is leading to a lot of avoidable friction between both these new States and most of the times the issues are being settled without any legal basis, based upon locational advantage. Since most of these Institutions are located in Hyderabad, which as per the Act, has become part of Telangana, the Telangana Government is taking advantage of their locational existence.”
The main issue is with reference to Schedule-X Institutions. Telangana State is claiming most of these Institutions (Out of 142 Institutions) based on their location in and around Hyderabad.
The view point of Andhra Pradesh is since they are built with the revenues of United Andhra Pradesh and their location either in Hyderabad or otherwise is a historical accident. Hyderabad being the Capital City, the assets, liabilities and staff of these Institutions need to be divided on population ratio.
The matter is now pending before the Supreme Court for a decision. Yet Telangana has taken over these Institutions located in Hyderabad and is insisting on an MoU and payment of charges to avail these facilities.
The other major issue is implementation of Section-8 that gives specific powers to the Governor and also envisages appointment of two Advisors to the Governor. This has not been operationalised so far.
This assumes significance, more so in the light of derogatory offensive remarks against people of Andhra Pradesh being that regularly uttered by a number of public functionaries.
The other issue is the division of Schedule-IX Institutions which are commercial undertakings. These are all commercial undertakings and the only way, the wage bill is equally apportioned to both the States is by dividing the staff on population basis. This has been the consistent stand of Andhra Pradesh Government whereas the Telangana Government is requesting for division of staff, based on nativity.