Telangana Congress leaders are planning a public meeting in the City sometime this month to impress upon the Centre to expedite the process of bifurcation of the State.
The date and the time of the meeting will be finalised when the extended general body meeting of the Congress leaders from the region is held on September 15 at Ministers Club House. At a meeting of the Telangana leaders, attended by seven Ministers and over a dozen legislators in the Congress Legislature Party, it was decided that the achievement of the Congress party in announcing division of the State should percolate to the grassroots.
Ministers – K. Jana Reddy, J.Geetha Reddy, D. K. Aruna, N.Uttam Kumar Reddy, V.Sunitha Laxma Reddy, D.Sridhar Babu and P. Sudarshan Reddy, along with other party MLAs and MLCs, attended the meeting. At the same time, the leaders also cautioned the party men and others to be wary of the political developments and scuttle any attempt to derail the process of bifurcation by the Seemandhra counterparts.
Some leaders expressed their apprehensions and said that the process should be expedited so that there would be no scope for further delay. A senior leader reportedly said that the Centre could go for early elections, which could put the statehood issue into jeopardy.
They hoped that the Centre would not go back on its promise of creating Telangana despite the agitation in Seemandhra region. The meeting lamented that the Congress leaders were lagging behind in taking credit for the division of State, while the TRS had already made a head start by announcing programmes in the coming days. The leaders were firm that the only way to convince the people was to hold a meeting in Hyderabad and follow it up by organising similar meetings at the mandal level.
Sources said the meeting discussed the statement made by Union Home Minister S.K.Shinde that Centre had two or three options for Hyderabad. They resolved to take up the issue with Centre that Hyderabad was part and parcel of Telangana State. They said leaders would not settle for any thing less than Telangana with 10 districts with Hyderabad as capital.
Talking to reporters, Chief whip G.Venkataramana Reddy said they were hopeful that AICC president Sonia Gandhi would fulfil the promise made to the people of Telangana.
‘No rollback’
Deputy Chief Whip in Lok Sabha Madhu Yaskhi said there need not be any apprehension about the creation of Telangana, as Centre would not reverse its decision because of the on going agitation in Seemandhra.
