Talks on Inter exams hit a roadblock

Hyderabad, Nov 20: The impasse on the conduct of Intermediate public examinations continues even after the education ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh met the Governor ESL Narsimhan here on Wednesday. It was widely reported on Wednesday that the Governor had summoned Telangana Education Minister G Jagadish Reddy and Andhra Pradesh Human Resource Development Minister Ganta Srinivas Rao to discuss the contentious issue of conducting the Intermediate exams. According to sources, a consensus could not be reached at during the meeting as both the ministers stood firm on their stands on conducting separate and common examinations for Inter students in the two states. The sources said when the Governor sought to know as to why the Telangana government was insisting on conducting separate Inter examinations and which of the two governments was the competent authority to conduct the exams, the TS minister is reported to have said that so far the Board of Intermediate Education was under the authority of the AP government. The TS minister then went on to explain that as per Section 75 of AP Re-Organisation Act any institution listed in the 10th Schedule belongs to that State into which geographical area it falls and if the other state needs services from the institution it should be provided. Citing the Section 75, the TS minister said the BIE belongs to Telangana and therefore it has the authority to conduct the Inter examinations. The minister, however, assured that the Board will extend all its support for conducting Inter exam in AP, the sources said. It is believed that the Governor then urged both the ministers to discuss the issue with their respective chief ministers and resolve the issue amicably at the earliest and in the interest of the Inter students. After the meeting with the Governor, though the AP HRD minister claimed that the meeting was success, he said that the final decision will be taken after consulting Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. According to sources, the AP government feels that conducting separate examinations would spoil the chances of its students in the EAMCET, IIT-JEE and other national level entrance examinations. So far both the government are firmly sticking to their respective stands.