The Telangana Government is not keen on going soft on the Andhra Pradesh claims on sharing assets related to higher education institutions and bifurcation of institutions under the 10{+t}{+h}Schedule of the A.P. State Bifurcation Act. Senior officials of Telangana said they would not agree to bifurcation of any institution mentioned in the 10{+t}{+h}Schedule as the High Court recently made clear that it had the total authority over the assets and institutions located within the State.
“We have told them in clear terms that legally they don’t have any mandate to seek bifurcation of institutions or the assets after the judgment. Even the Supreme Court has not stayed the orders. It only means that Telangana has total authority over the institutions as per the Bifurcation Act,” said Tummala Papi Reddy, Chairman, Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE).
While there was no question of negotiations on these two issues, requests for providing space for engineering counselling and the paraphernalia related to it like computers and web facility will be provided. A.P. officials will be allowed to retrieve data for counselling purposes.
However, TS officials want to take the opinion of the Advocate-General on A.P.’s request for taking the records. “We will take photocopies of all the records they are seeking and seek AG’s opinion before passing it to them”, a senior official, declining anonymity, said. Even the space they are asking for in TSCHE and Sanketika Bhavan will only be given for counselling. Telangana officials fear that if they agree to AP’s demands, it might be used in the petition pending before the Supreme Court.
The AP Government moved the SC after the HC’s judgment had gone against their argument that they held equal rights over the assets and infrastructure of higher educational institutions as per the Bifurcation Act.
