A meeting of the Council of Ministers scheduled for Wednesday was postponed indefinitely by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K. Rosaiah, a few hours after all 13 Ministers from the Telangana region announced their decision to stay away from it.
Mr. Rosaiah said he was deferring the Cabinet meeting as the administration would be busy on Wednesday when the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) has called for a one-day bandh throughout the Telangana region. At a press conference on Tuesday evening, he admitted that he had learnt through television channels that the Ministers had decided to abstain from the meeting. But some of them called him up to deny they were keeping away.
“Not proper”
Earlier, the Ministers, while announcing their decision, said it was not proper for them to attend the Cabinet meeting when they had faxed a joint letter of resignation to Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Higher Education Minister D. Sridhar Babu said they were firm on keeping away from all official engagements till the Centre announced a time-frame for the creation of Telangana. Four other Ministers — Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Jupally Krishna Rao, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and D.K. Aruna — echoed similar sentiments.
