In its eagerness to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and create separate Telangana, the Centre has not adequately applied itself to critical issues like irrigation, power and re-allocation of Government servants that could lead to legal and even constitutional complications.
Chief Minister N. Kiran Reddy gave this caution a day after he made a forceful pitch with the Group of Ministers (GoM) in New Delhi on Monday on the numerous reasons why Andhra Pradesh should not be divided.
Mr. Reddy, who had refused to give a point-by-point response to the GoM’s Terms of Reference, said the responsibility for the consequences lay squarely with the Centre if it uses shortcut methods to divide the State.
In an interview to The Hindu on Tuesday, Mr. Reddy said he visualised many legal hurdles in the creation of Telangana.
For one, Article 371 (D) had to be amended by two-thirds majority in Parliament before passage of the Bill on Telangana.
It remained to be seen how courts would respond to petitions complaining against deviation of conventions (such as creation of a States Reorganisation Commission) followed during the creation of new States in the past. Asked why he was proposing a package for Telangana now, having opposed an offer made by the Centre to this effect earlier, Mr. Reddy said this formulation was not true. “I wanted the Centre to announce the package not before the budget session of the Assembly but after its conclusion. But, nothing happened subsequently.”
To a question about the party’s prospects in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Reddy said the Congress would win seven seats in Telangana and sweep the polls in Seemandhra if it kept the State united.
Mr. Reddy said he had done all he could to convince the GoM not to go divide A.P. and submitted two reports, including one with maps and statistics on how Maoist violence would see a resurgence. The Centre must carefully consider these issues and their ramifications before proceeding further.
