YSR Congress Party president Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy began an indefinite fast here on Saturday in protest against the Union Cabinet's decision to carve out separate Telangana State.
He criticised the Centre for the "dictatorial’’ manner in which it was trying to push through the separate Telangana issue without addressing the concerns raised by people of Seemandhra region.
Mr. Reddy wondered how the Centre was confident that the Group of Ministers to be constituted for working out finer details of bifurcation could examine the concerns relating to water sharing, revenues and resource sharing and suggest modalties for redressing them within a span of six weeks.
The Centre, in the process, appeared to have decided to set aside the conventions in seeking the views of the Assembly before going ahead with division of the State.
Several party leaders including MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy and MLA Balineni Srinivasa Reddy accompanied Mr. Jagan in his fast. In view of threats by pro-Telangana parties on disrupting the fast, police made elaborate security arrangements around the venue to avoid any untoward incident.
To challenge Telangana decision?
Accusing the Congress of dividing the State for "votes and seats’’, he said the YSR Congress was contemplating to take a legal recourse against the Centre’s decision to divide the State. The party’s legal experts were examining the matter in detail.
He criticised Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu for not withdrawing the letter his party had given to the Centre in support of bifurcation of the State. Mr. Naidu should at least now write to the Centre to maintain the status quo and this should be done expeditiously, before the commencement of the latter’s fast in New Delhi slated from Monday.
