Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhara Rao on Thursday urged the Union government to take into account the positive recommendations of the Srikrishna Committee and treat them as grounds for creation of a separate State of Telangana.
Addressing a dharna, organised by the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) here, Mr. Rao warned that the Centre would not be allowed to pick up selective portions of the report in a bid to stall a separate Telangana.
The supporters of Telangana would not agree for anything short of a separate Telangana, with Hyderabad as its capital, he asserted.
The TRS chief said one of the options suggested by the panel was reverting back to the pre-1956 situation, when Hyderabad was a State. “We want Telangana in the same form without an inch of land in excess or deficit.”
He criticised the report as a document in total disarray. It was drafted in a way that could be interpreted for or against Telangana.
The TRS rejected outright one of the options about treating Hyderabad as a Union Territory. Similarly, the TRS would not accept the proposal to constitute regional boards to keep the State intact. Such boards and other measures like the six-point formula had failed in the past.
Nonetheless, Mr. Rao said the Committee without making it explicit admitted that the experiment of an integrated State did not work. It had conceded backwardness in the region.
Mr. Rao appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to test the patience of people in the region anymore and introduce a bill on statehood in the budget session of Parliament.
He warned the Congress MPs and MLAs to prepare for resignations if bill was not introduced.
No alternative
JAC chairman M. Kodandaram said the Committee report was not acceptable.
Telangana ideologue K. Jayashankar said there was no alternative but to launch a struggle.
The crowd greeted Telugu Desam Party MLA Pocharam Srinivas Reddy on his arrival. Mr. Reddy recently announced his decision to quit the TDP.
