Antony panel may address Seemandhra woes from Monday

The 4-member committee may camp in Hyderabad, if needed, and hear anti-Telangana leaders

The four-member committee set up to address Seemandhra Congress leaders’ concerns over the creation of Telangana is likely to commence its work on Monday, party general secretary in-charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijay Singh said on Friday.

The panel — headed by Defence Minister A.K. Antony — might, if necessary, camp in Hyderabad to meet the persons concerned. It would ask Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana to provide a list of persons who wished to present their views on the Telangana issue.

The other members of the committee are M. Veerappa Moily and Ahmed Patel, besides Mr. Digvijay Singh.

The Seemandhra Congress leaders essentially want the Congress/UPA to drop the proposal to create Telangana on the grounds that it would leave the future of people/government-employees of the Seemandhra region who are living in Hyderabad uncertain.

The leaders also expressed apprehensions over the sharing of Krishna/Godavari waters, and of electricity and other infrastructure between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Meanwhile, the former Minister and Cantonment Congress MLA, P. Shankar Rao, has sought an apology from Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy for going against the authority of party president Sonia Gandhi and questioning her decision to create Telangana.

He wanted the Chief Minister to step down for not taking action against those who had destroyed statues of Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and other Congress leaders during the recent stir in the Seemandhra region.

Mr. Rao said he met Ms. Gandhi, National Human Rights Commission Chairman Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and National Commission for Scheduled Castes Chairperson P.L Punia here and submitted complaints against the Chief Minister, and Director-General of Police V. Dinesh Reddy allegedly for filing false criminal cases against him.

Another Congress leader P. Sudhakar Reddy too condemned the damage caused to the statues in Seemandhra and urged protestors to maintain the peace in the interests of welfare of Telugu-speaking people, in both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.