Centre has time till Sept 30 to come out with concrete assurance on dividing Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana: T Cong-Sep 5, 2011

Centre has time till Sept 30: T Cong

TNN | Sep 5, 2011, 05.58AM IST


HYDERABAD: With pressure mounting on Congress MPs from Telangana to get their resignations accepted by the Speaker, the embattled leaders on Sunday gave the Centre time till September 30 to come out with concrete assurance on dividing Andhra Pradesh to create Telangana.

These MPs, who have been resisting pressure from the Telangana Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) on the issue of resignations, have now decided to meet in New Delhi to decide the future course of action. While the MPs have been reiterating that they stood by their resignations for the cause, most want to wait till Sonia Gandhi returns from the US.

"We stand by our resignations. We are optimistic that the Centre will come out with a positive statement before September 17. If the Centre does not act before September 30, we will have to take some harsh steps," Rajya Sabha MP K Keshava Rao said.

The MPs also extended their support to the 'sakala janula samme' (general strike) call given by the T-JAC from September 13. "We totally support the strike by T-JAC," said Rao.

Meanwhile, government employees in Telangana have announced plans to take up lunch-hour protests from Monday to mobilise support for the proposed general strike beginning September 13.

The Telangana employees' joint action committee (JAC) would serve a strike notice on the state government on Monday, in support of their demand for statehood. It had deferred the strike twice (August 17 and September 6) following pressure from various employees who insisted that they be allowed to make the most out of the current festival season.

Telangana political JAC chairman M Kodandaram Reddy said their agitation programmes were meant to bring pressure on the Centre to honour the December 9, 2009, statement by the Union home ministry announcing the process of formation of Telangana state. "We must stay united at this critical hour and ensure the success of the general strike. A successful general strike will force the Centre to concede the rightful demand of four crore people in the region," he said.

However, several affiliates of T-JAC said they were in a dilemma whether to join the strike as their efforts would be worthless if MPs and MLAs from the region did not get their resignations accepted. "With the government already bringing several departments under Esma and the high court directing the government to implement GO 177 (no work, no pay rule), we are in a state of confusion," said a leader of the teachers' JAC.