Mammoth TRS meet demands bill for separate Telangana
By IANSThursday, December 16, 2010
WARANGAL - A mammoth public meeting of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) in this Andhra Pradesh town Thursday night demanded that the central government table a bill in the budget session of parliament to carve out a separate Telangana state.
A resolution passed at the meeting, which drew a sea of humanity here, urged the government to abide by its Dec 9, 2009, statement on Telangana.
“This meeting demands the government of India to table the bill in the budget session of parliament in February,” said the statement read out by TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao.
On Dec 9 last year, following an 11-day hunger strike by Rao, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram had announced initiating the process for formation of a separate Telangana state.
A large crowd of people descended on this town for the TRS public meeting, which is expected to announce the roadmap for achieving a separate state of Telangana.
The town came to a standstill as all roads leading to the venue were choked with vehicles. There was a 10-km long traffic jam on the roads connecting Warangal to neighbouring districts and several TRS leaders were among those stranded.
Thousands of people gathered at a 1,000-acre open ground for the massive public meeting to mark the completion of one year of the central government’s statement on the formation of a separate Telangana.
TRS leaders claimed that 2.5 million people from all 10 districts of Telangana, including Hyderabad, had turned out for the meeting, said to be the first of its kind in the country.
It was a massive show of strength by the TRS ahead of the Srikrishna Committee’s report to the central government on the demand for a separate Telangana state. The five-member panel is to submit its report before Dec 31.
Swami Agnivesh, TRS ideologue Jayashankar, Telangana Joint Action Committee chairman M. Kodandaram, TRS MP and former actress Vijayashanti, Jamaat-e-Islami chief of Andhra Pradesh and Orissa unit Malik Motassim Khan, leaders of students, trade unions and women’s organisations were among the prominent speakers.
The public meeting was scheduled to be held Dec 9 but was postponed due to heavy rains in the state.
