State education council to be split

Hyderabad: In what could further complicate the ongoing Eamcet counselling tussle, the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education is set to be divided in the next couple of days.

Officials privy to the development said that the file pertaining to the division had been sent to the Governor for his approval by the state government.

With the Telangana government not agreeing to the dates notified by the admissions committee, the two new Councils will have to form another committee and decide on new dates.

The Governor had stalled the division of APSCHE during Governor’s Rule in the undivided Andhra Pradesh citing its inclusion in the Tenth Schedule of the AP Reorganisation Act.

However, organisations included in the Tenth Schedule can be bifurcated with mutual agreement.

“Both Chief Ministers wanted to split the Council because they want their own chairman heading the Council,” a senior official said.

The split has been fast-tracked after the recent decision of the admissions committee to notify the schedule for the Eamcet counselling certification verification despite the Telangana government making its reservations clear.

“They had partly misunderstood the decision to issue the notification and now Telangana has decided to split the Council so it can have more leverage with its own chairman and members,” the official said.

This could make things slightly more complicated as counselling dates have to be agreed upon by the state governments since admissions are common, according to the Act.

Meanwhile, the APSCHE filed the implead petition in the Supreme Court on Friday in the appeal filed by the Telangana government on the extension of deadline for admissions. The APSCHE pleaded that counselling should begin as per the dates notified by it.