Hyderabad: The sharing of assets with Andhra Pradesh in the common capital of Hyderabad will prove costly for the Telangana government.
Following the recent Supreme Court directions on sharing of Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education’s assets and liabilities between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in the ratio of their population of 52:48, the Telangana government has estimated that it needs to pay around Rs 25,000 crore to Andhra Pradesh, if it wants to stake claim over these assets.
Most of these assets are government offices in Hyderabad, which are jointly shared by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The Andhra Pradesh government is making arrangements to shift its offices to Amaravati by June and is demanding 52 per cent of the buildings and land’s worth from Telangana to hand these over after shifting.
APSCHE alone has fixed deposits worth Rs 115 crore and a bank balance of Rs 18 crore. The Andhra Pradesh government recently wrote to the Telangana government to come forward to share the FDs and bank balance of APSCHE in the ratio of 52:48 as directed by the Supreme Court. But there has been no response from the Telangana government so far as it has been scouting for legal options to file a review petition in the apex court.
There are 120 institutions listed under Schedule IX and X of the AP Reorganisation Act 2014, which are offering joint services to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh at present; most of these are located in Hyderabad.
The Andhra Pradesh government is seeking a 52 per cent share of the assets and liabilities of all these institutions. While the Andhra Pradesh government is claiming that the Telangana government will have to pay it nearly Rs 70,000 crore to take control of these institutions, the Telangana government has pegged the amount at Rs 25,000 crore, as per the worth of buildings and lands when they were provided to these institutions between 1956 and 2014.
"The Andhra Pradesh government is seeking a share based on the existing market rates, which is not correct. It arrived at a figure of Rs 70,000 crore based on that. But it should be based on the market value prevailing at that time when the building was constructed or land was allotted," said an official from the Finance department.
While the Andhra Pradesh government is claiming that the 120 institutions together had bank deposits of Rs 16,000 crore as on June 2, 2014, the Telangana government has dismissed this and put the figure at Rs 3,600 crore.
