Telangana Congress leaders accused their Seemandhra counterparts of creating unnecessary apprehensions among people on the State’s bifurcation.
Union Science and Technology Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said the Centre would provide adequate safeguards to Seemandhra people and Telangana Congress leaders were not against them. Mr. Jaipal Reddy spoke to reporters in New Delhi after a brainstorming session as he described it, with party leaders and Ministers from the State.
Bhadrachalam issue
The meeting was convened to fine-tune the presentation that should be made to the Group of Ministers on Monday. It discussed issues like power situation, revenue sharing and the status of Hyderabad after bifurcation and a majority of the participants pitched strongly for retaining Bhadrachalam in Telangana.
The meeting is understood to have taken a serious note of frequent statements issued by Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy against the decision taken by the Congress Working Committee, the highest governing body. Asked about the issue, Mr. Jaipal Reddy, however, said the high command was closely monitoring the situation and it would take appropriate steps in this direction.
The Congress leadership took a decision on Telangana after consulting all the political parties in the State and there was no point in opposing the decision now.
Mr. Jaipal Reddy said a detailed note had been prepared for submission to the GoM covering all key areas, but refused to divulge the contents. “We have considered the pros and cons of each of the 11 terms of reference of the GoM and prepared the note accordingly,” was all he said to repeated queries. Mr. Jaipal Reddy, along with P. Balram Naik and Sarvey Satyanarayana, would also make a written representation to the GoM The report follows similar presentations made by the State Ministers to the GoM.
Replying to a query, he admitted that the Telangana State, as and when it was formed, would face power shortage, but there were several options to overcome such an eventuality.
