Panchayat Raj Minister K. Jana Reddy has urged the Central government to resolve the separate Telangana issue soon so that there is no scope for aggravating hostility among people of different regions, which can lead to unwarranted incidents.
The Centre should take a decision before the situation gets out of hand and development of all the regions is adversely affected. The bifurcation of the State is for the sake of administrative convenience for speedy resolution of problems confronting the people of different regions.
“We will separate as States, but will continue to be united as Telugus,” he said, adding that bifurcation would give scope for the two States to emerge as role models in the country.
Senior Telangana leaders including Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, Ministers and others converged here on Tuesday, a day after AICC general secretary AP affairs in-charge Digvijay Singh announced that a decision on the contentious issue would be taken soon.
The leaders expressed confidence that an announcement on the separate State issue would come from the party leadership in a fortnight. Mr. Jana Reddy, who spoke to reporters, exhorted the leaders of political parties from the Seemandhra region to cooperate with the Central government in taking a decision on the Statehood issue at the earliest.
The Congress high command was seized of the matter as was evident from the pace of consultations that intensified over the past few months and all parties should cooperate with the Centre in expediting a decision on the issue. “The Seemandhra leaders should understand the historical background of the struggle, continuing for the last five decades and it is time a solution is arrived at,” he said.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Mr. Rajanarsimha and AP Congress president Botcha Satyanarayana had been asked to prepare reports for submission to the high command and “hopefully, they will complete the exercise soon”.
He asserted that there would be no ill-treatment of people from other regions if a separate Telangana was formed. “They are living here since long and they will continue to be part of the family,” he said.
