Setback for Andhra as Centre rules in favour of Telangana on sharing of assets in Hyderabad

In a major setback for Andhra Pradesh, the Centre ruled on Saturday against Andhra Pradesh’s claims regarding sharing of common administrative assets between the two Telugu states.

As against Andhra’s insistence that all common facilities of government institutions or organisations should be shared between the two states based on population, the Centre ruled that only the headquarters of these institutions could be shared.

For the past three years, the Andhra government has been seeking bifurcation of assets located in Hyderabad of all entities listed under Schedule IX of the AP Reorganisation Act, according to population. According to the Act, the headquarters of Schedule IX institutions should be shared on the basis of population ratio of 52:48 between the two states. Andhra had interpreted this to mean all assets of the institutions located in Hyderabad.

In the case of the Road Transport Corporation, for instance, the Andhra government has reportedly been seeking a share in the RTC Hospital located at Tarnaka, the bus body building unit and other vacant properties in Hyderabad.

However, Telangana has been urging that headquarters does not include all assets in Hyderabad, but only the principal administrative building of each institution or organisation. Thus Telangana has  been insisting that only the RTC Bus Bhavan, as the headquarters of the RTC, should be partitioned.

On Saturday, a Ministry of Home Affairs order to the Chief Secretaries of both states confirmed that the Centre would take Telangana’s line on this issue.

“The headquarters i.e., the principal office of the undertaking is to be apportioned on population ratio and the operational units are to be apportioned on location basis,” the order, quoted by The New Indian Express, said.

With this order, the principle according to which the division of assets of APSRTC, AP Agros, AP Foods and AP Vijaya Dairy, which had been pending for a long time, will be carried out. According to The Times of India, this gives Telangana rights over assets worth nearly Rs 10,000 crore as per government estimates.

With the decision going against the Andhra government’s favor, there have been reports that the AP government might move the Supreme Court.