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The Cabinet on Thursday cleared the long-pending draft resolution to create a separate Telangana state by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh. Telangana will be the 29th state.
Hyderabad will be the joint capital of both Seemandhra and Telangana for the first 10 years, after which it will belong to Telangana. The Cabinet also decided to set up a group of ministers (GoM) to work out the modalities for this.
Till late in the afternoon on Thursday, Home Minister SushilKumar Shinde, whose ministry piloted the proposal, had been denying reports of the Telangana note coming up before the Cabinet. Hyderabad city was on the boil since afternoon when news trickled in that the Telangana issue was likely to be taken up. In Delhi, too, pro-united Andhra protestors blocked the roads leading to the prime minister’s residence.
The Congress Working Committee, the highest decision making body of the Congress party, had cleared the proposal to create Telangana two months ago.
Highly-placed sources said the Telangana proposal was placed as a “table item” and not included in the formal agenda. After the matter was raised in the meeting, Cabinet ministers from the Seemandhra region, human resources development minister Pallam Raju and textiles minister K S Rao both protested, with the latter reportedly saying that the note ran into 22 pages and he had not had time to read it.
Tribal affairs minister K C Deo, who is also a strong advocate of united Andhra, was not present at the meeting. Union minister Jaipal Reddy, on the other hand, is a staunch supporter of the Telangana cause.
Home Minister Shinde later said, “The GoM will look into special financial disbursement for the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh,” adding, “People of all the three regions of coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana will be guaranteed their fundamental rights.”
In an official release, the government stated: “The GoM will work out the various legal and administrative measures to ensure the safety and security of the residents of all the regions of the state, including the guarantee of their fundamental rights.”
The new state will comprise 10 out of the 23 districts of undivided Andhra Pradesh, which has witnessed many protests for the past four years over the bifurcation issue.
The last monsoon session of Parliament also witnessed stormy scenes by both Congress and the Telugu Desam Party MPs from the Seemandhra region protesting against any move to divide Andhra Pradesh. Several MPs have also tendered in their resignation to the speaker.
Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, incidentally, is staunchly against the move to bifurcate the state and has gone public with his dissent against his party, the Congress.
Thursday’s Cabinet decision culminates the process that was started after P Chidambaram in 2009 declared that the government had decided to go ahead with the creation of Telangana.
