SC notice to Centre, Telangana on division of assets plea by AP

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Central and the Telangana governments on a plea filed by the Andhra Pradesh government seeking expeditious and equitable division of assets and liabilities between it and Telangana.

A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and M.M. Sundresh sought reply from the Centre and the Telangana government. Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated and the new state of Telangana came into existence on June 2, 2014.

The Andhra Pradesh government said it has approached the apex court as “parens patriae” (parent of the nation), as “non-division of the assets is clearly to the benefit of Telangana since about 91 per cent of these assets are situated in Hyderabad (the capital of the erstwhile combined state) which is now in Telanganaa.

The plea said Hyderabad was not only transformed into an economic powerhouse because of the ‘Capital Centric Development Model’ but also, most of the institutions of governance (intended for the welfare of the people of all the regions of the state), including government infrastructure, were exclusively centred in and developed around the city of Hyderabad by extensively investing resources of the combined state.

The AP government said the employees working in the state institutions (1,59,096) have been in a limbo since 2014, solely because there has been no proper division. It said it is therefore imperative that all assets be divided at the earliest and a quietus be put to the issue.

The plea said: “Non apportionment of the assets has led to a multitude of issues adversely affecting and violating the fundamental and other constitutional rights of the people of the State of Andhra Pradesh including the employees of the said institutions.”

It further added that without adequate funding and actual division of assets in terms of the apportionment made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, the functioning of the institutions in Andhra Pradesh has been severely stunted.

“It is pertinent to point out that these institutions are an extension of the state and perform a range of basic and essential functions in fields as diverse as agriculture, dairy development, education, medical services, minority and backward class development, industrial development, infrastructure development, social security etc. and the fact that their assets have not yet been bifurcated has seriously debilitated their functioning which has a direct and adverse impact on the people of the state of Andhra Pradesh, who they are intended to serve.”