No more committees, says TRS chief

Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu was closeted with Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan for about half-an-hour at Raj Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Mr. Naidu, who was among the nearly dozen leaders who called on the new Governor, left without meeting media persons. A party spokesman maintained that it was a courtesy call and they had no information on what transpired during the one-on-one meeting.

But sources said Mr. Naidu spoke elaborately about the violence and law and order problem, especially the attacks on some establishments.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao gave a detailed account of the political crisis in the State to the new Governor and requested him to restrain the State government from resorting to repressive methods in dealing with the situation in Telangana.

Mr. Rao said the TRS would not accept any more committees that the Centre might contemplate constituting to discuss the formation of Telangana. The committees would only waste time. Instead, the TRS was willing to depute its representatives to talk to the Centre and speed up the process.

Mr. Rao, who was accompanied by his party leaders, told reporters that he hoped Mr. Narasimhan would act positively, but the latter insisted that the TRS help in restoration of peace.

During the 90-minute long meeting, Mr. Rao said he took to the notice of the Governor the partisan manner in which the government booked cases against agitators in Telangana. The government not only continued to register false cases, but made no attempts to take up with the Centre its announcement to lift cases in connection with the pro-Telangana struggle.

He also informed the Governor how the government tried to crush the Telangana agitation with police forces and requested him to ensure withdrawal of forces.

Several Congress leaders, including Union Minister D. Purandeswari, former Union Minister Renuka Chowdary and Mallu Ravi, were among those who called on Mr. Narasimhan individually.