Andhra Pradesh government has moved the Supreme Court seeking its intervention in the inordinate delay caused by the State of Telangana and the Union of India in dividing the assets and liabilities of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh between the two successor States. The writ petition has been listed for hearing by the Supreme Court on Friday.
The State government represented by the Chief Secretary filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday in this regard and a fair, equitable and expeditious division of assets and liabilities including institutions and corporations specified in Schedules IX and X of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014 between the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The petitioner stated that the total value of the fixed assets to be divided of the 245 institutions was about ₹1,42,601 crore and non-division of assets is clearly to the benefit of Telangana since about 91% of these assets are situated in Hyderabad [the capital of the erstwhile combined State], which is now in Telangana.
The writ petition requested the court to declare the inaction of Telangana and the Union government and direct the former to furnish the details of all properties including immovable and movable and funds of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
The petition also sought direction to the Telangana government to forthwith carry out all measures that are required to physically hand over to the Andhra Pradesh and the corporations their respective assets and liabilities specified.
Andhra Pradesh also sought compensation in the form of 15% interest per annum with effect from June 2, 2014 as defined under Section 2(a) of the Reorganization Act.
The appointment of impartial and independent arbitrators to supervise and monitor the actual division of assets was also sought.
The petition stated that the actual division of assets had not even commenced to date despite repeated efforts by the Andhra Pradesh government. The approximate value of assets of the Headquarters of Schedule – IX institutions is estimated as ₹24,018.53 crore and out of them assets worth ₹22,556.45 crore [93.9%] were located in the State of Telangana.
“Non-apportionment of the assets has adversely affected and violated the fundamental and other constitutional rights of the people of the State of Andhra Pradesh including the employees of the said institutions,” the petitioner said in the writ.
So far, the Central government held 28 review meetings with both governments but not a single issue had been resolved and Telangana had accepted the recommendations related to only 68 (out of 89) institutions whose value is only ₹4,619 crore, the petition stated.
