More than eight years after bifurcation, the Andhra Pradesh government has moved the Supreme Court, seeking intervention in the division of assets with Telangana. Andhra Pradesh has contended that the actual division of assets has not even begun in the eight years since the formation of Telangana in 2014. These undivided assets are worth nearly Rs 1,42,601 crore, and about 91% of them are in Hyderabad, hugely benefiting Telangana, Andhra has said.
The undivided assets include several institutions and corporations specified in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014. The Act laid out how assets and liabilities must be shared between the two states. Since 2014, a total of 29 review meetings have been held by the Union government with representatives of the two states to review the progress of the implementation of various provisions of the Act. Yet, the issues remain unresolved.
The Andhra Pradesh government’s petition to the Supreme Court stated that the undivided assets pertain to 245 institutions, The Hindu reported. These assets are worth about Rs 1,42,601 crore. The institutions include those specified in the ninth and tenth schedules of the Reorganisation Act. The ninth schedule includes 89 government companies and corporations such as the state Warehousing Corporation, Civil Supplies Corporation, Textile Development Corporation etc. The tenth schedule lists 107 state institutions and training centres including the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Centre for Good Governance, State Board of Technical Education and Training etc. Most of these companies and institutions are located in Hyderabad.
According to Deccan Chronicle, the petition says that the value of the ninth schedule institutions is estimated to be Rs 24,018.53 crore, of which about 94% (worth over Rs 22,550 crore) are in Telangana. The value of the tenth schedule institutions is estimated to be Rs 34,642 crore, of which 88% (worth over Rs 30,530 crore) are in Telangana. Another 12 institutions with undivided assets worth Rs 1,759 crore are also in Telangana, the petition said. Overall, about 91% of the undivided assets pertain to institutions located in Hyderabad, and have disproportionately benefited Telangana, the Andhra Pradesh government has said.
Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014. The Reorganisation Act had named Hyderabad as the common capital for both Telugu states for a period of 10 years. The transitional arrangement was scheduled to end in 2024. However, the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government under Chandrababu Naidu left Hyderabad immediately, and decided to develop Amaravati as the new state capital. Many of the undivided assets, therefore, remained in Hyderabad under the ambit of Telangana alone, the Andhra Pradesh government’s petition underscored.
Andhra Pradesh has been faced with financial difficulties since bifurcation, and the plea said that without adequate funds and actual division of assets, “the functioning of the said institutions in the state of Andhra Pradesh has been severely stunted." In the past, officials of institutions like the Telugu Akademi have stated that they have remained inactive due to a shortage of resources as a result of the bifurcation, as combined assets were yet to be distributed and joint funds not released.
"Hyderabad was not only transformed into an economic powerhouse as a result of the 'capital centric development model' but also most of the institutions of governance (intended for the welfare of the people of all the regions of the state) including government infrastructure was exclusively centred in and developed around the city of Hyderabad by extensively investing resources of the combined State," the plea said.
It also said that the constitutional rights of the people of Andhra Pradesh, including the employees of the institutions whose assets remain undivided, have been affected. "Non-apportionment of the assets has led to a multitude of issues adversely affecting and violating the fundamental and other constitutional rights of the people of the State of Andhra Pradesh including the employees of the said Institutions,” the petition said. It said that the employees working in state institutions (approximately 1,59,096 of them) have been in limbo since 2014 solely because there has been no proper division. "The position of pensionable employees who have retired post bifurcation is pitiable and many of them have not received terminal benefits. It is therefore imperative that all these assets be divided at the earliest and a quietus be put to the issue," the plea said.
Last week on December 7, former MP from Congress Undavalli Arun Kumar criticised the YSRCP government’s stand in the Supreme Court, over a petition filed by him and several others, challenging the way Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated. Undavalli said that while he had continued to fight against the bifurcation in court, the YSRCP government had failed to support him and instead, the state government’s counsel said in the Supreme Court that the bifurcation was a closed chapter. Undavalli insinuated that this indicated the YSRCP government’s endorsement of bifurcation. The former MP has criticised both the TDP and YSRCP governments in the past for not taking up the bifurcation issue in the Parliament and the Supreme Court.
He said that the state government told the Supreme Court that it had no objections to the Reorganisation Act and appealed to not open the case, saying that it would be like “opening Pandora’s box.” He went on to ask if Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was aware of the stand taken by his government in the case.
This prompted a defensive response from YSRCP general secretary and Andhra Pradesh government advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy the next day. Sajjala said that the YSRCP had always supported united Andhra Pradesh and opposed bifurcation. He said that the YSRCP government was fighting for the promises made in the Reorganisation Act, and condemned Undavalli‘s remarks saying they were deliberately targeted against CM Jagan. It was on the heels of this controversy that the Andhra Pradesh government’s petition for the division of assets came to light. The petition is likely to come up for hearing on Friday.
In all these years, the Union government has refused to intervene strongly or to take sides. On Wednesday, December 14, BJP MP GVL Narasimha Rao asked in the Rajya Sabha about the status of the implementation of bifurcation promises made to Andhra Pradesh as part of the Reorganisation Act. In response, Union Minister of State (MoS) for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said: “The approach of the Central government has consistently been that bilateral issues can be resolved only with the cooperation of the state governments concerned and the Central government acts only as facilitator for amicable settlement of the disputes in a spirit of mutual accommodation and understanding.”
The response also mentioned that while certain provisions of the Reorganisation Act have been implemented, the rest are at various stages of implementation. Some of th provisions relating to infrastructure projects and educational institutions have a long gestation period, for which a time period of ten years has been prescribed in the Act, Nityanand Rai said. It also mentioned that 29 review meetings have been held by the Ministry of Home Affairs so far with officials of the two states, to review the implementation of the Reorganisation Act.