Telangana issue figures again in Rajya Sabha

Telangana issue again figured in Rajya Sabha today with TDP members protesting against any move to carve out a separate state from Andhra Pradesh and charging the Centre with being "insensitive" to the issue.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Y S Chowdhary (TDP) said the whole of Andhra Pradesh was on fire but government has turned "insensitive" to the plight of the people there.

"It is a democratic country and the government should resolve the problem of Andhra Pradesh," he said, saying it was mockery of democracy that the government was hell bent on its decision of creating a Telangana while its own members were opposed to it.

He said the state is burning for the last 37 days but "just for coming back to power" Congress has resorted to the decision of creating a separate state.

Chowdhary was allowed to speak briefly as he started shouting slogans like "Save Andhra Pradesh" as soon as Deputy Chairman P J Kurien asked Finance Minister P Chidambaram to move the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2013 in the House.

Soon after Chowdhary finished speaking, Ananda Bhaskar Rapolu (Cong) stood up demanding that he be allowed to speak on it.

Rapolu said the people were in favour of creating Telangana and government should respect their sentiments. He also said that frustrated over delays in creation of Telangana, a student of Osmania university had committed suicide.