AP and Telangana government are gearing for yet another fight for sharing seats in the National Institute of Technology (NIT). Telangana government argues that according to NIT guidelines, 50 seats should be allotted to local students i.e. for Telangana students. Telangana Deputy CM Kadiyam Sri Hari submitted a memorandum to Union Human Resource Development Ministry secretary (higher education) Satyanarayan Mohanty on Tuesday.

He said NIT is a central government institution. Hence Article 371 (D) of the Constitution is not applicable to it. Hence, 50 per cent seats should be allotted to Telangana students in NIT. Andhra Pradesh can ask the Central government to create supernumerary seats for its students in other NITs in the country. But, CM Chandrababu Naidu is pressurizing the Centre to take away our students seats in NIT. We will resist any such attempt politically and legally said Kadiyam to media.

But, Andhra Pradesh government has two legal points to justify its arguments. It quotes Section 95 of the AP Reorganization Bill that says: “In order to ensure equal opportunities for quality higher education to all students in the successor States, the existing admission quotas in all government or private, aided or unaided, institutions of higher, technical and medical education in so far as it is provided under Article 371D of the Constitution, shall continue as such for a period of 10 years during which the existing common admission process shall continue.”

It also quotes 13th Schedule of the AP Reorganization Bill which says “Premium Institutions like IIT, NIT, IIM, IISER, Central University, Petroleum University and Agriculture University to be set up in the AP state by the Central government. Until then, the AP students should be given their due share of seats in all these premium institutions in the Telangana state, argues AP government.