2 Telugu CMs a matter of pride: Jairam

Hyderabad: Union Minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday said that in order to protect the interests of Seemandhra, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced a six-point package and special category status for five years. Speaking at Gandhi Bhavan, he asserted that in five years, Seemandhra would get '50,000 crore from the Centre and Hyderabad (GHMC area) would be the common capital for both states for 10 years.
He added that from the appointed date, Telugu people would have two chief ministers, two chief secretaries and two DGPs. When the National Development Council meet next, there would be two chief ministers speaking Telugu, which would be a matter of pride for Telugu people as there is no language other than Hindi in which two or more chief ministers speak, he said. Giving the examples of Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, Mr Ramesh said that there could be a gap of three months between the notification date and the appointed date.
Mr Ramesh also stressed on the need for reconciliation and cooperation between the two states to implement various provisions in the Bill. He added that an expert committee would give recommendations regarding the location of the new capital within six months. The Central government would fund the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for legislature, high court, secretariat and government buildings of the new capital.
He also said if required, degraded forests would be denitrified for the establishment of the new capital. About the new institutions to be established in Seemandhra region, the Union minister said one IIT, one NIT, one IIM, one IISER, one central university, one petroleum university, one agricultural university, one AIIMS type super specialty college cum hospital, one tribal university  and a National Institute of Disaster Management would be established.
Separate river boards for management of sharing of river waters from Krishna and Godavari would be constituted. The Krishna water Disputes Tribunal would be asked to make specific project-wise allocation and determine an operational protocol for project wise release of water in the event of deficit flow. He said allocations, if any, to be made on excess flows by any tribunal in future, would be binding on both the states of Telangana and the successor state of Andhra Pradesh.
He added that no new projects based on water resources arrived as based on appropriate dependability criteria on Godavari or Krishna rivers could be taken up by the state of Telangana or the state of Andhra Pradesh without obtaining sanction from the apex council on river water resources. Assuring that all on-going projects would be completed and none would be abandoned, Mr Ramesh said that the Polavaram project would be executed by the central government with 90 percent funds.
Both regions now should concentrate on development, Mr Ramesh said, adding that the Article 371 (D) would continue and Telangana would be added to it. He said that state level employees would have options and around 84,000 employees would be shared between the two states.