Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu will write to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the controversial decision of the Telangana government to consider only those students whose parents were bona fide residents of Telangana State as on November 1, 1956 as local students.
The State which is gearing up to challenge the domicile controversy in the court is of the view that the nativity re-defined by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao ostensibly to extend the proposed Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST) scheme would not stop there. It might also be extended to education and employment, said Social Welfare Minister R. Kishore Babu.
Though the 1956 cut-off date issue did not figure in the State Cabinet meeting on Friday, Mr. Chandrababu Naidu discussed it with some Ministers informally. Mr. Naidu would meet the President and represent on the attempts to violate the Constitution and AP State Reorganisation Act.
The State would also request the Centre to ensure the implementation of the State Reorganisation Act passed by the Parliament, he said.
Addressing media persons, Mr. Kishore Babu said the 1956 cut off date was anti- Constitution. Though education was a concurrent subject, the State should abide by the Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution which prohibited any discrimination based on one’s religion and region.
He recalled that a similar attempt by Jharkhand government to set 1952 as cut off date to provide government jobs to locals sparked off a serious agitation in which 70 people were killed. Before that Chandigarh government made a similar effort in vain which was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Mr. Kishore Babu said both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were bound by 371(D), six point formula and the Presidential Order and the State Reorganisation Act which said common admission process would be in force for 10 years. When lakhs of acres of land in Telangana were encroached as there were no proper records, the insistence to submit proof that people were residents in Telangana by 1956 would result in large scale chaos.
He said it was not proper on part of Telangana Ministers T. Harish Rao and K. Taraka Ramarao to reject outright the suggestion of Mr. Naidu that both the States should share the fee reimbursement burden in the ratio of population at 58:42.
