AP knocks SC doors for division of assets

New Delhi: The State of Andhra Pradesh filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Wednesday seeking division of assets and liabilities between the two Telugu States. It urged the Apex Court to declare Telangana's inaction in this aspect as violative of the fundamental rights of its people and necessary directions for early bifurcation of assets.

It is interesting to note that the move comes in the wake of fresh onslaught on the Government over its failure to protect State's interests either in case of the Special Category Status or the Polavaram project. This also comes at a time when the ruling party of Telangana, the BRS (Bharat Rashtra Samithi), is trying to take roots in New Delhi with Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao opening his national party office there and making moves to forge an anti-BJP alliance in the country.

The State has made its move under Article 14 and 21 in seeking a 'fair, equitable and expeditious' division of assets and liabilities of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh between the two States as promised in the Bifurcation Act. It may be recalled that both the States are financially in dire straits with allegations of mismanagement of finances mounting and debt servicing turning out to be dearer.

The plea states that the actual division of assets had not even commenced till date though the AP Government was for early resolution. It states that assets and liabilities of not a single institution specified in Schedule -IX (91 Institutions) and Schedule - X (142 Institutions) of the Act, and 12 more institutions, have been apportioned between them. It further states that non-division of assets valued at Rs 1,42,601 crore was beneficial to Telangana as 91 percent of the assets are located in Hyderabad.

It shows the value of the Assets of the Headquarters of Schedule - IX institutions at an estimated Rs 24,018.53 crore. Out of these Rs 22,556.45 crore are located in Hyderabad, it states.

As for the Schedule-X institutions, the total approximate value of fixed assets to be divided is Rs 34,642.77 crore whereas Rs 30,530.86 crore worth assets are in Telangana. The other 12 institutions which don't find a mention in both, have assets worth Rs 1,759 crore and all of these are located in Telangana.

The plea states that the employees were the worst sufferers as they have been in a limbo (1,59,096 in all) since 2014 because of absence of division of assets. Pensionable employees' terminal benefits were being hit too, it said. The violation of the fundamental and other constitutional rights of the people of the State of Andhra Pradesh cannot suffer unendingly, it said.