Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana submitted to Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: The Justice Srikrishna Committee on Telangana statehood demand on Thursday submitted its report to home minister P Chidambaram.

After a meeting, the five-member committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Srikrishna, met the home minister in North Block office to present the report.

Details of the report are still awaited, but the home minister has appealed for peace. Security all across Andhra Pradesh has been tightened.

A meeting of eight political parties has been convened by the home minister on January 6th, 2011. Details of the committee's report will only be revealed once they are shared with the other political parties.

"I propose to convene a meeting of 8 recognised political parties of Andhra Pradesh on January 6. Immediately after the meeting, the report will be made public," Chidambaram said.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh presided over an emergency meeting of the Union Cabinet to review the Telangana state issue and security in Andhra Pradesh ahead of the submission of the report.

Earlier, the five-member committee on Telangana statehood issue had said it would give "several options with their pros and cons" in its report that will seek to achieve the highest satisfaction of the largest number.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Justice B N Srikrishna hoped that the report, would offer a solution to the divisive demands for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. He also expressed the hope that all political parties in the state will accept the report and maintain peace and harmony after the report is submitted.

"I hope peace prevails in the state after the report is submitted. It is the responsibility of the politicians and the media," he said.

The seven-point term of reference announced by the Union Government on February 12 has mandated the Justice Srikrishna Committee to "examine the situation in Andhra Pradesh with reference to the demand for a separate state of Telangana as well as the demand for maintaining the present status of united Andhra".

The government constituted the committee on February 3, nearly two months after it had announced that steps have been initiated for the formation of a separate state of Telangana.

The Telangana region is spread over 10 northern districts of Andhra Pradesh.

From timesofindia.com

Srikrishna committee gets first representation on Telangana

 New Delhi: The Justice B N Srikrishna Committee on Telangana on Tuesday received the first representation from a Congress MP who opposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, saying a separate state will not do any good for the people of the region.

Lagadapati Rajagopal, the Vijayawada MP who quit over the issue and then withdrew his resignation, said "mere sentiment" should never be the ground for division of states.

"If states are divided based on this (sentiments), it will have far reaching repercussions. Definitely, there will be more and more such demands in the resultant a truncated state," he said in a letter to the committee's Member-Secretary V K Duggal.

Rubbishing the claim of Telangana supporters that the region was under-developed, the MP in his 5-page letter said all Telangana districts, except a couple of them, have shown more growth rate compared to other regions of Andhra Pradesh and also all India growth rate over the last 15 years.

"We are all proud of the development and prosperity of Telangana region, which is comparable to the best of the developed regions in the country," he said and claimed he got the figures from government and other agencies.

Rajagopal also said that out of the total government jobs, there are 92 per cent of jobs at the district level, 6 per cent at zonal level and the remaining 2 per cent at the state level.

He said the claim of pro-Telangana activists that a separate state would generate more jobs for the people was not true.

"There are only 27,000 state level jobs in Andhra Pradesh and there are hardly any regional disparities with regard to government job recruitments.

"If a new state is formed, at the most a couple of thousand additional jobs would be created with the formation of the new state," he said.

"With more than a million youth coming out of graduation every year in search of jobs, will these couple of additional government jobs suffice?" he said.

He also contested pro-Telangana activists' view that the culture of Telangana people is different from that of others in the state.


’Committee on Telangana to finish consultation by July’

The Srikrishna committee appointed by the Centre to go into Telangana statehood issue would start the process of consultation by the end of March and complete it latest by the end of July, Member-Secretary of the committee V K Duggal said here tonight.

"We would like to complete the consultation process by the end of June and might extend till July. After that, we will start evaluation of the data and write the report. We are determined to give the report by the end of the year", he told reporters on his maiden visit to Hyderabad after the constitution of the panel.

The committee has been asked by the central government to submit its report by December 31.

Duggal is on a day's visit to Hyderabad to put in place the necessary infrastructure and other arrangements for the committee to do its job.

Duggal had a meeting with Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary S V Prasad and will meet Governor E S L Narasimhan.

‘Include Dec 9 statement in Telangana committee's ToR’

Congress MPs from Telangana today appealed to the party high command that the Centre's December 9, 2009 statement on the separate statehood issue should be included in the Terms of Reference (ToR) of the Srikrishna Committee to clear the air over the issue in Andhra Pradesh.

The MPs have already written a letter to party chief Sonia Gandhi demanding that Home Minister P Chidambaram's December 9 statement that the Centre would initiate steps for the formation of a separate Telangana state be included in the ToR of Justice Srikrishna committee.

"We want the statement to be included so that the people of Telangana will have no doubt about the Centre's initiative for wide ranging consultations," Nizamabad MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi told agency here.

He said including the statement in the ToR will bring confidence among Telangana people about the Centre's willingness to form a separate state.

The Srikrishna Committee has been mandated to look into the demands for a separate Telangana state as well as keeping Andhra Pradesh united.

From www.zeenews.com

Separate Telangana, United Andhra among options

 In the fourth option, for which political parties spearheaded by Telangana Rashtra Samiti have been campaigning, the committee suggests bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into two units -- Telangana and Seemandhra -- as per existing boundaries. Telangana will have Hyderabad as its capital, while Seemandhra, comprising Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions, will have a new capital.
In the option for keeping the state united, the committee has suggested that there should be simultaneous provision of certain constitutional and statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region by creation of a statutorily-empowered Telangana Regional Council.

Srikrishna report on Telangana offers 6 options

 Creation of a separate Telangana state with Hyderabad as its capital and keeping Andhra Pradesh united with constitutional and statutory measures for empowerment of Telangana region are among the six options recommended by the Justice Srikrishna Committee.

The report of the five-member committee headed by the former Supreme Court judge, which gave its recommendations after nearly 11 months of consultations in the state, was released by the home ministry on Thursday, a week after it received it.
The two-volume 461-page report has also suggested maintaining status quo with a rider that it is the least favoured option.

Srikrishna panel report out: 6 options on Telangana

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

The options listed by Srikrishna Committee report

New Delhi:  The Srikrishna Report on Telangana has been presented to political parties from Andhra Pradesh. The report places before the government several options rather than recommendations on how to handle the three parts of the state: Coastal Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema.

The 505-page report lists six options and then itself rules out the first three options as not being practical, saying the most "workable option" is the sixth one - a united Andhra Pradesh with constitutionally-allocated regional rights.

( Read: Full text of Srikrishna Committee Report)

The six options that the report lists are:
 

1. Maintain status quo

2. Bifurcation of the State into Seemandhra and Telangana; with Hyderabad as a Union Territory and the two states developing their own capitals in due course

3. Bifurcation of State into Rayala-Telangana and coastal Andhra regions with Hyderabad being an integral part of Rayala-Telangana

4. Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged Hyderabad Metropolis as a separate Union Territory

5. Bifurcation of the State into Telangana and Seemandhra as per existing boundaries with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra to have a new capital

6. Keeping the State united by simultaneously providing certain definite Constitutional/Statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region -creation of a statutorily empowered Telangana Regional Council.