Bifurcation blues continue to haunt institutions, corporations and centres that await division of assets and liabilities in Andhra Pradesh even eight years after the division of the erstwhile composite State.
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University and Potti Sriramulu Telugu University are among the institutions bearing the brunt of the delay. The Ambedkar university management in Hyderabad receives ₹16.36 crore from Andhra Pradesh, which includes a grant of around ₹4.51 crore, fee paid by the students of A.P. to the tune of ₹11.6 crore and around ₹90 lakh collected towards entrance fee. Every year, around 30,000 students from A.P. enrol in the university through the entrance exam.
Besides an Officer on Special Duty (OSD), the 76 study centres of the university in A.P. have 29 teaching and non-teaching staff in addition to 12 pensioners. The staff at these study centres have not received their honorarium for the last nine months.
The university comes under Schedule X of the AP Reorganisation Act and the staff, assets and liabilities have not yet been bifurcated in the stipulated 52:48 ratio. “We pay salaries and pensions to the staff but the A.P. students’ fee is credited to Dr. B.RAOU, Hyderabad, which provides only study material and certificates. The retirement benefits of the employees are also not yet formulated,” says OSD Velaga Joshi, informing that the Hyderabad unit has been collecting money but not extending proper services to A.P. students and the study centres here.
There are 13 regional centres in Andhra Pradesh and seven of them have own buildings while the remaining work from various college campuses.
“Instead of sending money to the university in Hyderabad, we ourselves can pay the salaries and honorarium to the staff and money could be sent to the university’s central office only for course work and material, as a first step towards bifurcation. Constitution of a committee for preparation of material for A.P. students could be the next step,” Mr. Joshi suggested in a representation made to the Education Minister Botcha Satyanarayana recently.
He also flagged the need to appoint supporting staff for the smooth functioning of the university affairs in A.P. He sought deployment of three teaching staff from the Commissionerate of Collegiate Education, A.P., to strengthen the academic activity in the study centres in the State.
The case of Potti Sriramulu Telugu University also hangs fire and the uncertainties are giving rise to doubts over key aspects of the bifurcation. People associated with the university say doubts persist over the government’s intention to start the university here and whether all courses available in the Telugu University, Hyderabad will be replicated here.
The university had deposits to the tune of ₹14.88 crore as on July 1, 2014, which need to be divided in the 52:48 ratio between the two States.
