No Telangana, panel bats for United Andhra- Jan 05, 2011

No Telangana, panel bats for United Andhra

Seema Chishti

Jan 05, 2011 at 0401 hrs IST



New Delhi The report of the Telangana Committee headed by Justice B N Srikrishna, expected to be made public after the all-party meeting scheduled on the subject on January 6, is said to have weighed in on the side of arguments calling for a “united” Andhra Pradesh.

While it has offered as many as six options — to ostensibly meet the aspirations of those calling for a separate state and balance competing demands — it has suggested that in the interests of “stable development” in the future, a united Andhra Pradesh is the best way forward.

Sources told The Indian Express that the committee, in its 500-page report, has argued that on the basis of “backwardness” alone, it was difficult to push for a separate Telangana state — the argument used most commonly to make a case for it.

In fact, sources said that a detailed examination of socio-economic variables in all regions of the state led the committee to conclude that there is no material basis for treating only the Telangana districts as “backward.”

Andhra Pradesh has three regions: coastal Andhra, the Rayalaseema region and the more interior Telangana region (which includes the capital, Hyderabad).

With the TRS and the BJP declaring their intention to not attend the all-party meet called to discuss the report and the TDP insisting upon conditions before they can confirm their presence, a cloud hangs over the fate of the meeting called in Delhi over the findings of the committee.

After the submission of the report, the Home Ministry wound up the committee but the member-secretary, former Home Secretary V K Duggal, will remain in office until the end of the month and also available for any queries that may arise during the course of the all-party deliberations scheduled for Thursday.

The committee reportedly has referred to and collected nearly 1.65 lakh documents and has made several field trips to the region and met with different parties.

The Telangana demand raised its head late last year, when a fast called by the TRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao took a serious turn and after several state parties, especially the opposition TDP and the BJP took a strident line, the Centre intervened to support the claims for a separate state.

However, after the announcement was made, a storm in the other two regions of the state created a divide even within the ruling alliance on the matter and the vacillation has continued since.

The Telangana demand is an old one discussed during the course of the States Reorganisation Commission Report which laid the linguistic basis for the formation of states.

The demand has been surfacing periodically and in 1969 an agitation for a separate state stalled life there, till a Constitution amendment by the Parliament (Article 371-D, through the 32nd amendment in 1973) introduced important provisions for the region, “in the matter of public employment and education”.

The latest round of turmoil has been compounded by the Congress party’s internal war of attrition after the death of Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and the subsequent departure of his son, Y S Jaganmohan Reddy from the party.

Andhra Pradesh sent 33 MPs, the maximum number from any state, to the Congress’s kitty in the 2009 elections.