The Srikrishna Committee, after holding wide-ranging consultations over the past 11 months on the demands, on the one hand, for creation of a State of Telangana and on the other, for maintaining the present status of a united Andhra Pradesh, submitted its report to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram here on Thursday.
Reading out a prepared statement soon after receiving two volumes of the report from the panel's Chairman, Justice B. N. Srikrishna, the Home Minister said he would convene a meeting here of the eight recognised political parties of Andhra Pradesh on January 6, 2011. Immediately after that meeting, “the report will be made public.''
Mr. Chidambaram said the government would consider the report and begin consultations with all political parties before taking appropriate decisions on it. “That is the only way in a democracy and those who respect democracy must also respect the process of democracy.''
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The report would be “carefully studied in the Ministry of Home Affairs and shared with the Ministries/Departments concerned.''
The Minister recalled that the Srikrishna Committee was formed after the January 5 meeting of the eight recognised political parties in Andhra Pradesh. “The government has decided that, in the first instance, the report will be shared with the eight recognised parties. Accordingly, I proposed to convene a meeting of the parties on January 6, 2011.”
Reiterating the joint appeal made by the Centre and the eight parties on January 5, Mr. Chidambaram urged the people of Andhra Pradesh to maintain peace.
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The government had great faith in the wisdom, maturity and tolerance of the State people. All political parties and groups had assured the government that they would maintain peace, harmony and law and order. “We welcome and believe these assurances,'' he said.
Taking note of the concern over deployment of security forces in the State, Mr. Chidambaram assured the people that the deployment of forces was a purely precautionary measure. “They will remain at the force headquarters or police stations as a reserve force. As long as the people and the political parties/groups take upon themselves the responsibility of maintaining law and order, we do not foresee the need to actually deploy the security forces.”
The five-member committee, headed by Justice Srikrishna, a retired Supreme Court judge, was constituted on February 3 and its term was to end on December 31.