Hyderabad: The division of 89 PSUs between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh hangs in balance as the tenure of the Sheela Bhide committee, appointed by the Centre for the purpose, is set to end on May 31.
Except consulting the two governments, the committee has hardly done anything concrete in the last 10 months.
Leave alone division of PSUs, even the demerger plans have not been prepared by the committee so far.
Meanwhile, the two governments continue to fight over control of these institutions that have bank deposits of hundreds of crores and 2.5 lakh employees.
Irked with the delay, employees of these PSUs have even approached President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for intervention.
PSUs Employees Federation chairman S. Vijay Mohan and secretary general B. Rajesham complained to the President and the Prime Minister that the Andhra Pradesh government was deliberately blocking the division of the PSUs under one pretext or the other, since the PSU were currently under the control of the Andhra Pradesh government and it was trying to divert funds to the state illegally.
They cited instances of alleged diversion of funds by Andhra Pradesh amounting to over Rs 400 crore belonging to the AP Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board and '21 crore belonging to AP Remote Sensing Agency without informing the TS government.
Governments in undivided Andhra Pradesh had invested nearly Rs 65,000 crore in these 89 PSUs that are listed under the IX Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act.
The Act mandates the division of these PSUs between both the states within a year.
Meanwhile, both states are trying to gain control over these PSUs by appointing their own officials on the boards and complicating things further.
