The Srikrishna committee on the demand for a separate Telangana state became public on Thursday morning. It has suggested six options, including the creation of a new state.
After the release of the 800-page report, home minister P Chidambaram addressed an all-party meeting in Delhi, but three major parties, TRS, BJP and TDP, boycotted it. Chidambaram has urged all parties to study the report and return for another meeting, later this month.
Minutes after he made the appeal, TRS leader K T Rama Rao said it was up to the UPA government at the centre to make up its mind, since the Telangana activists had already made their position clear: they want nothing less than a separate state.
As things stand, the Congress-led central government cant hedge on the statehood demand any more. The new Telangana state, if conceded, will be carved out of Andhra Pradesh, one of Indias biggest states.
Among the ideas put forth by the committee are: keep a united Andhra Pradesh with provisions for empowering Telangana, divide the state into two (Seemandhra and Telangana) and let each develop a capital, and turn Hyderabad into a union territory. The committee does not favour maintaining the status quo, which is an acknowledgment that popular sentiment demands a change in the states contours.
The committee has also said backwardness is no criterion for creating a new state. All of which means the way forward remains as confused as before, but time is running out for the central government. The Telangana groups are united, and ready to launch a struggle that cuts across party lines.
Paramilitary forces wielding machine guns are standing guard at several places in Andhra Pradesh, and any violent uprising could be crushed immediately. Telangana groups have been threatening that the people will erupt spontaneously if their demand is suppressed any more.
HISTORY
It was exactly a year ago, on December 9, that the central government said it would act on the demand for a separate state. That statement, on both houses of parliament, came after Telangana Rashtriya Samiti leader K Chandrashekhar Rao went on an indefinite hunger strike, and agitators turned violent.
The agitation for a state separate from Andhra Pradesh has been emotive, and by the TRSs estimation, nearly 500 people have committed suicide for the cause.
Not all political parties are for Telangana, though. The Telugu Desam Party, led by Chandrababu Naidu, has been ambivalent about the demand. The Congress is split, with leaders from the Telangana region rooting for a separate state, and those elsewhere sitting on the fence.
From Yahoo News
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