Bifurcation blues haunt Telugu varsity with TS wants AP staff to be taken back

VIJAYAWADA: Eight years after state's bifurcation, three branches of the Potti Sriramulu Telugu University continue to be under the administrative control of the Telangana state government while its staff get wages from the AP government.

The university placed in Schedule X of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, has
its headquarters in Hyderabad while three branches are located in
Rajamahendravaram, Kuchipudi and Srisailam.

Following the direction from the Telangana High Court to take care of the
university until it gets divided between AP and TS, the Telangana government
is maintaining administrative control on the university’s three branches located in AP while controlling the headquarters as it is located in Hyderabad.

Recently, the Telugu University executive council passed a resolution to ask the AP government to pay wages to the staff hailing from AP and working in its offices in Hyderabad. If that was not possible, the council said, the staff should be brought back to AP.

Seven teaching staff and 44 non-teaching staff hailing from AP are working
in Hyderabad and are being paid by the TS government. Some of them will
retire in the next two years and they will need to be paid nearly `7 crore
in retirement benefits.

The three branches in AP have nearly 65 teaching and non-teaching staff for
whom the AP government is paying wages.

There is a huge demand from the students and locals to make Rajamahendravaram the headquarters of the university in AP and introduce all
disciplines being offered at the Hyderabad campus.

A senior official from Telugu university said, “It is time to divide the university between AP and TS to avoid trouble in future.”