AP Criticizes Renaming & Claims Ownership Of NG Ranga University!

A delegation of Andhra Pradesh ministers called on Governor E S L Narasimhan on the issue of changing the name of N G Ranga Agricultural University and Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University (SVVU) and lodged a protest against the decision of the Telangana government to bifurcate and rename the universities.

It may be mentioned here that Telangana government has recently announced changing the name of the N G Ranga Agricultural University and named the university after late Prof. Jayashankar and similarly named the other university after former PM PV Narasimha Rao.

AP deputy chief minister K E Krishnamurthy, ministers Yanamala Ramakrishnudu, Pattipati Pullarao, Narayana, Kamineni  Srinivas and media advisor Parakala Prabhakar met the Governor and raised objection for changing the name of the decades’ old universities.

Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister KE Krishna Murthy, who on only a day before, submitted a petition with the governor against the Telangana government setting a new Higher Education Council, led another delegation of minister to the Raj Bhavan yesterday to lodge his protest against renaming the universities.

The delegation strongly opposed the decision of the Telangana government and alleged that the Telangana government is repeatedly violating the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act in letter and spirit. They claim that the “GO Ms No 7, issued by the Telangana government for dividing ANGRAU and GO Ms No 1 for the creation of the PV Narasimha Rao Telangana State Veterinary University do not have a legal basis and are against the provision of the Act.”

“An institution which does not find its place in the Schedule IX or X of the Act should automatically devolve to Andhra Pradesh” they said. As per the AP Ministers’ argument. both the universities belong to AP irrespective of their geographic location and Telangana has no business bifurcating them. It is not known if the ministers will go to court on the same logic.

Any attempt to change its character should be a bilateral exercise and cannot be done unilaterally,” the delegation said in its petition and added that bifurcation of institutions, not listed in the Schedule IX or X, should not be bifurcated in a manner that ‘proves advantageous to one state and affects the other’ said the AP Deputy CM.

According to the minister from AP, the distribution of posts in the ratio 52:48 is applicable only to those institutions which are listed in Schedule IX of the Reorganisation Act. “The Telangana government decided location-specific needs be met and divided the universities,” they observed.

The AP ministers said changing the name of any university without the consent of both States amounts to violation of the Constitution. The Governor assured the ministers that he would make sure that such things should not happen in future.