Hyderabad:
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS, which has in recent years spearheaded the campaign for a separate Telangana state, has written a tough letter to the Union Home Ministry with its views on how India's 29th state should be planned, saying the Andhra Pradesh government's "gross injustice to Telangana" needs to be reversed.
Here is what the TRS, headed by K Chandrasekhar Rao, wants:
The party says the policing of Hyderabad - which a government formula proposes will be a common capital of the two new states for 10 years - should be under Telangana. The Centre has proposed that the IT hub will become the capital of Telangana after 10 years and the other state will get a new capital.
The TRS suggests that the process to identify and set up the capital for the "residual state," made up of coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, should be expeditiously done, ideally within two years.
Till that is done, it suggests, "Residuary state of Andhra Pradesh can conveniently function from a set of decent, dignified and spacious outfits located in close proximity within the city of Hyderabad," while Telangana can use the existing infrastructure.
It has again raised what is an old but controversial demand that all those government employees who have illegally used a quota for the people of Telangana to secure jobs or promotions, should be relocated. The TRS contends that about 30 per cent of those employed in government jobs in the Telangana region have got these illegally.
It also makes specific demands on water and other resource sharing.
A Group of Ministers of GoM set up by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre is drawing up a detailed blueprint for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, okayed this year by the Congress to much protest and agitation in Seemandhra, as the two non-Telangana regions of the state are together known as.
The GoM had sought the views of different political parties on its terms of reference.
The terms of reference for the GoM include determining the boundaries of the new state of Telangana and the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the electoral constituencies, judicial and statutory bodies, and other administrative units.
Jagan Mohan Reddy, the YSR Congress chief out on bail, has already responded to the ministerial group stating that he wants the decision to create a separate Telangana rescinded.
The Congress, which also rules Andhra Pradesh, and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party are split down the middle on the statehood for Telangana issue. Both parties will meet today to discuss their response to the Centre. Congress leaders from Seemandhra will meet Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy while Telangana leaders are meeting with state Congress chief Botsa Satyanarayana.
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