All eyes on meeting on Telengana

The Union government is open to all sorts of options, including wide ranging consultations with different political parties before deciding upon the justice Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana issue, official sources here hinted, ahead of the first meeting on Thursday in the national capital.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected to seek consensus on the issue after unveiling the Srikrishna committee report, which he received on Dec 30.

The committee, which held consultations over the last 11 months on demands for a separate state of Telangana carving out of Andhra Pradesh, has offered many options and it may take a call before the budget session of Parliament beginning in the third week of Feb, the sources said.

A five-member committee, headed by former Supreme Court judge, Justice B.N. Srikrishna, is believed not to have equivocally recommended any particular option but gave views ? with the pros and cons along with the historical background ? in each options.

The panel, appointed by the Centre on Feb 3 last year, submitted an 800-page two-volume report to Chidambaram on Dec 30.

The suggestions include keeping Andhra Pradesh in the present form, forming a separate Telangana, and making Hyderabad a Union Territory.

But any new formation would definitely open a Pandora’s box, as India is experiencing separate statehood demands from many regions, including in the east.

The most vocal demand emanates from the hills of Darjeeling in West Bengal for a Gorkhaland.

But the Bharatiya Janata Party, the main opposition party, the Telangana Rastra Samithi, that spearheads the movement, and the Telugu Desam Party, headed by former AP chief minister Chandrababu Naidu have decided to boycott the meeting, which raised speculations about the impact of the possible outcome.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, who is now in Delhi, has denied that his party (Congress) was united on the issue.

But in recent weeks, Congress MPs and MLAs from the Telangana region have threatened to resign if the demand for a new state was not conceded.

Ahead of the New Delhi’s meeting in Andhra Pradesh elaborate security arrangements have been in all the three regions – coastal Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema.

About 5,000 CRPF, BSF and CISF personnel have been posted in the state, with close to 2,000 only in the state capital.