Nothing less than Telangana acceptable, say TRS, TDP

HYDERABAD - Both the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) Thursday were unanimous in their rejection of the Srikrishna Committee report on the Telengana issue, and said nothing short of a separate state was acceptable to the people of the region. The TRS even insisted on Hyderabad as the capital of the new state.

Both the TRS and the TDP along with the BJP Thursday boycotted the all-party meeting in New Delhi called by Home Minister P. Chidambaram to share the Srikrishna Committee report.

Maoist sympathiser, balladeer and Telangana Praja Front leader Gaddar too demanded that the central government immediately table the bill in parliament.

Reacting to the report made public earlier in the day, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao said Telangana people were not ready to accept anything short of a Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital.

He urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to dither or dilly-dally on the Telangana issue but table a bill in parliament during the budget session to carve out a separate state.

“I am requesting the prime minister to abide by the statement he made in both houses of parliament on Dec 10, 2009, and the assurance given by the government on Dec 9,” he said.

Voicing their disappointment at the Srikrishna Committee report, Telangana leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) said “nothing less than a separate Telangana state” was acceptable to people of the region.

They warned the Congress party, ruling both in the state and at the centre, against playing with the sentiments of the Telangana people and demanded early legislation for creating the state.

KCR, as TSR chief Rao is popularly known, warned the central government against testing the patience of Telangana people. “Otherwise Telangana will be on the boil and the agitation will continue,” he said while addressing a sit-in organised by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) at Indira Park in this southern metropolis.

The TRS chief said four crore people of Telangana want their own identity, self-rule and self-respect. “We want Telangana state as it existed before it was merged with Andhra on Nov 1, 1956. We don’t want an inch less or an inch more,” he said.

Rejecting the committee’s suggestion to make Hyderabad a union territory, KCR said there was no question of giving up the historic city as it is an integral part of Telangana.

The TRS leader also ridiculed the suggestion that a regional council be formed for development of Telangana. “We have seen many boards, agreements and assurances during the last 50 years and we can’t trust another board,” he said.

He asked Congress MPs and other elected representatives from Telangana to resign if the central government failed to table a bill for a separate state in parliament. “If you resign and create a constitutional crisis, the government will come down and create Telangana state but if you fail to do this, you will be responsible for its consequences.”

Earlier, TRS legislator and KCR’s son K. Tarakarama Rao told reporters here that the only practical solution was formation of a separate Telangana state comprising 10 districts with Hyderabad as its capital.

TDP leaders from Telangana equivocally voiced their rejection of the Srikrishna Committee report and said nothing less than a separate Telangana state was acceptable to people of the region.

“We were expecting that the committee will make straightforward suggestion for formation of Telangana state but it has insulted the people by making various suggestions,” said TDP Telangana Forum convenor Nagam Janardhan Reddy.

“I am warning the Congress party not to play with the sentiments of Telangana people and table the bill in parliament in the next session to carve out a separate state,” the former minister said.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) said the report would only add to the confusion over the Telangana issue. CPI state secretary K. Narayana, who attended the meeting in Delhi, said the central government should not delay the process for formation of Telangana.