Centre considers including unlisted institutions in Schedule X; Telangana raises eye brows

The Central Government is reportedly contemplating to include the institutions not included anywhere in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation (APR) Act 2014 into the Schedule X institutions.

The Ministry of Home Affairs referred to the division of assets and liabilities of institutions not mentioned anywhere in the APR Act and requested the Telangana Government to furnish views/comments . There are 12 institutions including the Serifed (Federation of Sericulture and Silkweavers’ Cooperative Societies and Construction Workers’ Welfare Board) and others which did not find a mention in the Act and the two States have been at loggerheads over the division of these institutions since bifurcation.

The Union Home Ministry, in a recent communication to the Telangana Government, said that “the Central Government may notify the institutions existing on the appointed day in the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana that have not been included in the Tenth Schedule on the basis of power accorded by the provision of sub section (2) of section 75 of the Act”.

Coming at a time when the stalemate over the bifurcation of institutions mentioned in the Schedule IX and X of the Act is yet to be resolved, the communication did not go down well with Telangana which is firm on its opposition to bifurcation of the institutions not mentioned in the Act. Senior officials are claiming that the letter follows pressure exerted by the Andhra Pradesh Government, an ally of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the Centre, to ensure division of these institutions between the two Telugu States.

“They (the AP Government) has been citing section 75, but it is no longer valid,” a senior official said. The provision sub section (2) of section 75 of the APR Act did not carry weight as it clearly said that the Centre could intervene in the matter within one year of the appointed day June 2, 2014. “The Central Government may, at any time within one year from the appointed day, by notification in the Official Gazette, specify in the Tenth Schedule referred to in sub-section (1) any other institution existing on the appointed day in the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and, on the issue of such notification, such Schedule shall be deemed to be amended by the inclusion of the said institution therein”, the Act said.

Senior officials said that Centre has intervened in the past giving directions relating to bifurcation of institutions. But that was on May 7, 2015 before the lapse of one year timeline as mentioned in the Act. The State was not prepared to accept such proposal and a decision on the issue would be taken in consultation with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy.