Hyderabad: Wittingly or unwittingly, the Congress leadership dropped sufficient hints on Monday that Rayala Telangana with 12 districts, including Kurnool and Anantapur from the Rayalaseema region, is a possibility. The proposal has drawn sharp criticism from Telangana leaders, including Union minister Jaipal Reddy.
Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde, in an informal chat with newsmen, said that the Rayala Telangana proposal was very much under consideration, but that no final decision had been taken. He said the GoM would meet on Tuesday evening to finalise the draft Bill.
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AICC general secretary Digvijaya Singh said the Rayala Telangana proposal was very much alive and it was for the GoM and Union Cabinet to consider and approve it.
The indications, however, are that the Telangana Bill will not make it to Parliament by December 20, the last day of the Winter Session. A special session will then have to be called to pass the legislation.
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Union parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath met with floor leaders on Monday ahead of the opening of the Parliament session on December 5, where he said the T Bill was not yet ready.
The Group of Ministers will be meeting on December 3 at 5.30 pm to finalise the draft Bill, presenting two options — Telangana and Rayala-Telangana. Union minister Jairam Ramesh has reportedly prepared a 69-page document for the GoM.
After approval, the report will be submitted to the Prime Minister the next day.
Next: Seven reasons for Rayala Telangana
Seven reasons for Rayala Telangana
Hyderabad: The Prime Minister will decide the date for the Cabinet meeting to approve the draft bill on Telangana. It is not clear whether there will be a Union Cabinet meeting on December 4 as was announced earlier.
It was reliably learnt that Delhi Congress leaders have asked the Union home minister to postpone the Cabinet meet on December 4, when the Delhi Assembly polls will be held; a sizeable number of voters are from AP.
The TRS, BJP, YSRC and even Telangana Congress leaders are vehemently against the Rayala Telangana proposal. Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy had also rejected it when he met the GoM in Delhi recently.
According to insiders, the proposal to add two more districts is prompted by the following reasons:
1. It is impossible for the Centre to make Hyderabad the joint capital for 10 years under the existing provisions of the Constitution without amending the Constitution.
2. Once Telangana state is carved out, there will be trouble in Seemandhra state over the capital. Rayalaseema leaders will probably insist on Kurnool, invoking the pre-1956 status of Andhra state.
3. By creating Rayala Telangana the present state would be split into exactly two halves, with each having 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats.
4. Since Rayala Telangana will be dominated by 10 districts of the Telangana region, the political dominance of both the Telugu Desam and YSR Congress in Kurnool and Anantapur will be drastically reduced.
5. All important party functionaries such as Kiran Kumar Reddy (Congress, Chittoor), Chandrababu Naidu (Telugu Desam, Chittoor) and Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy (YSR Congress, Kadapa) will be confined to their districts and a new leadership might emerge in coastal Andhra.
6. With the creation of Rayala Telangana, sharing of river waters as well as hydel power generation from Srisailam headworks will remain in one region.
7. There will be continuous road connectivity between Hyderabad and Bengaluru IT industries.
Next: Rayala Telangana talk heats up Delhi
Rayala T talk heats up Delhi
Hyderabad: There is hectic lobbying in the national capital by Telangana Congress and Telangana political JAC leaders to oppose the Rayala Telangana proposal, even as supporters of the proposal plead for its adoption.
Telangana leaders are worried at reports that such a formation is being considered at the last minute. The Telangana Congress leaders are totally opposed to any further addition of districts.
They met ministers and AICC leaders and demanded that the new Telangana state have only 10 districts and Hyderabad as its capital, as was decided by the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
Former PCC president D. Srinivas, who is playing a key role in the formation of Telangana state, met many ministers and AICC leaders on Monday and sources say he is trying to get an appointment with AICC president Sonia Gandhi.
The former PCC chief told the media in Delhi on Monday that floating the Rayala Telangana proposal is a conspiracy and according to him there is no such proposal with the Group of Ministers or high command.
He said Telangana state with 10 districts and Hyderabad city as its capital will be formed before the next general elections.
Members of the Telangana Political JAC and their chairman Kodandaram went to Delhi on Monday. The TPJAC leaders met Union minister S. Jaipal Reddy and later Kodandaram and others told the media that Rayala Telangana is not acceptable to both regions of Telangana and Seemandhra.
The TPJAC leaders said they will meet Janata Dal (U) president Sharad Yadav and CPI leader Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy on Tuesday and seek their support.
The Congress leaders belonging to Anantapur and Kurnool, the two districts that would be added to make Rayala Telangana, also lobbied with the GoM to include the districts.
They also want to make Hyderabad city a Union Territory but this has been decisively vetoed. They told AICC leaders that if Kurnool and Anantapur from Rayalaseema region were added, the position of the YSR Congress in Seemandhra and the TRS in Telangana would be weakened.
They also said that it would preempt any attempt by the Rayalaseema region to demand a separate state.
