ANDHRA PRADESH VS TELANGANA

2. Division of assets

• There are 91 institutions under Schedule IX and 142 institutions under Schedule X of the Act.
• The division of another 12 institutions not mentioned in the Act has also become contentious between the States.
• The issue involves 245 institutions with a total fixed asset value of ₹1.42 lakh crore headquarter assets under Schedule IX institutions are pegged at ₹24,018.53 crore while institutions under Schedule X are at ₹34,642.77 crore.
• The other 12 institutions are valued at ₹1,759 crore.

 3. AP government’s claims

• The AP Government is firm on the implementation of the recommendations given by the expert committee headed by retired bureaucrat Sheela Bhide for bifurcation of 89 out of the 91 Schedule IX institutions.
• But it lamented that the Telangana government had selectively accepted the recommendations leaving others which was resulting in delays in division of assets and liabilities.

4. Expert committee recommendations

• The committee has made recommendations with respect to the division of 89 out of the 91 Schedule IX institutions.
• Its recommendations on the division of assets that are not a part of the headquarter assets attracted criticism from the Telangana government which said it is against the spirit of the Reorganisation Act.
• The division of several institutions like the RTC head quarters and the Deccan Infrastructure and Landholdings Limited (DIL) which have huge land parcels in its possession have become the key bone of contention between the two States.
• The committee, for instance, recommended the division of RTC workshops and other assets which do not come under the de!nition of ‘head quarter assets’.
• Telangana opposes these divisions.
• The land parcels held by the DIL do not come under the provisions of the Act either, Telangana contended.
• The Union Home Ministry has given clarity about the headquarter assets way back in 2017.

5. Telangana's stand 

• The Telangana government has contended that the expert committee’s recommendations were against the interests of Telangana.
• There is a clear definition of division of headquarter assets in Section 53 of the Reorganisation Act.

• The government is firm that the assets located outside the erstwhile united State like Andhra Pradesh Bhavan in New Delhi could be divided between the States on the basis of population as per the provisions of the Act.

6. Centre role

• Several meetings of the dispute resolution committee headed by the Union Home Secretary and comprising of the Chief Secretaries of the two States and those convened by the dispute resolution sub-committee headed by the Home Ministry’s joint secretary could not break the impasse.
• The Act empowers the Union Government to intervene as and when needed.
• Hopefully, the Home Ministry takes steps to expeditiously and amicably settle the issues between the two States.

For Prelims & Mains