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Tale of two Telugu states and Rs 300 cr laying eggs in banks
Frozen funds prove a bane to the higher education sector of two states
Hyderabad: Over the past 11 years, Rs 300 crore meant to be spent on giving impetus to higher education in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states has remained unused, accumulating interest in banks. The delay in spending these funds arose because the state governments of TG and AP have not agreed on sharing the funds post bifurcation of the United Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking to The Hans India, a former senior official of the Telangana State Higher Education Department (TSED), said, “The funds were in the name of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE) at the time of United Andhra Pradesh until 2014”. Post-bifurcation, both states are at loggerheads over sharing the funds. Initially, the Telangana State High Court had given a favourable verdict agreeing to the claim of the Telangana State government that it is the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE), now rechristened as TGCHE. The claim of Telangana was that since the APSCHE is headquartered in Hyderabad, based on the location, the assets should come to Telangana as per the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Act 2014. However, aggrieved, the AP went to the apex court, arguing that the funds of the APSCHE should be shared on a population basis of 58 per cent for AP and 42 per cent for Telangana.
Following this legal battle, the Supreme Court directed that the funds should be shared by both on a population basis and not a location basis. Though the verdict had come about four to five years ago, the funds are still languishing at the State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and other nationalised banks in Hyderabad. The reason is unless both states come to an agreement, these accounts are frozen. And, “every three months, they get renewed automatically, and the interest accrued over the funds is re-credited into the frozen accounts,” the official said.
Further, the State Council of Higher Education had proposed to the Telangana State government to settle the issue during COVID-19, as the higher education body was going through a tough time due to a fund crunch. However, the council’s plea fell on deaf ears, and the sharing of funds remained an unresolved issue.
A former Vice-Chancellor of a state university from Telangana said, “They were not funds given by the State government to the erstwhile APSCHE. These funds were earned by the APSCHE. They were meant to benefit the students and the higher education sector. So, it is not proper for the governments to act stubbornly over settling the issue.” Following an uncompromised stand taken at the political and bureaucratic level, the higher education sector is at a loss to put the funds to proper utilisation.
When asked, sources in the APSCHE said that the issue was broached once or twice earlier. The response from the bureaucrats in the Andhra Pradesh State Higher Education Department (APSHED) of the state was that they cite the verdict of the apex court to wait to get the 58 per cent share of funds, said an APSHED official. He felt the issue might have been settled had it been left to be decided by the Higher Education Councils of both the states.
