Union Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju on Friday reiterated that he would not return to work until the Central government understood the feelings of the Seemandhra people and reversed the decision to carve out Telangana.
Talking to The Hindu here, the Minister, who had put in his papers October 3 and later met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to urge the latter to accept his resignation, said till date there had been no response from the government. “Anyway I am not clearing official files or taking/approving any policy decisions,” he added.
Informed sources said the Minister has stopped using his official car. He is also not attending programmes in his capacity as HRD Minister anywhere in the country.
Asked why he attended a programme of President Pranab Mukherjee here recently, Mr. Raju, who represents Kakinada in the Lok Sabha, said: “As otherwise it will amount to breach of protocol.”
The agitation against the bifurcation of the State was continuing in Seemandhra and the situation had become so volatile that elected representatives were finding it difficult even to visit their constituencies, he said.
He replied in the negative when asked whether the unity of Seemandhra Ministers in the Union Cabinet had been broken as some of them continued to attend office.
