Hyderabad: Even as employees of the two states quarrel, the Centre is yet to give clarity on the fate of Sheela Bhide committee constituted for the bifurcation of public sector undertakings between Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh.
The committee’s term expired last month but several major PSUs are yet to be divided between the two states, the prominent ones being AP Mineral Development Corporation and the AP State Finance Corporation.
These PSUs have bank deposits worth hundreds of crores of rupees and governments of both the states are trying to gain control over those funds. These PSUs have also witnessed clashes between employees of TS and AP.
As recently as on Friday, employees belonging to Telangana locked up the chambers of the Finance Corporation to block a scheduled board meeting.
The reason for the protest was a proposal mooted by the board to sanction '20 crore from the corporation’s bank deposits to set up two branches in AP.
The contention of the TS employees was that the board cannot use the bank deposits without the approval of the TS government since the organisation belongs to both states. The employees also wrote to the banks not to honour the cheques issues by the AP officials.
“There is no place for Telangana State officials on the APSFC board. They are trying to take advantage of this and divert funds to AP without any approval from the TS government,” said TS employees leader G. Deviprasad.
“We have blocked two board meetings earlier. But it is not possible to track their activities every day. The Centre should ensure early bifurcation of PSUs which have bank deposits of crores of rupees to see that they are not misused or diverted,” Mr Deviprasad said.
A similar tussle is going on between TS and AP officials and staff in the AP Mineral Development Corporation.
While the TS staff is seeking sharing of funds in the ratio of population, the AP staff contends that a large portion of the corporation’s earnings were accrued from mines located in Andhra Pradesh and not in Telangana State.
