Srikrishna Committee starts consultations on Telangana issue

The five-member Committee for Consultation on the Situation in Andhra Pradesh on Friday met the 10-member delegation that included lawmakers, ideologues and experts on Telangana.

This is the committee's first formal meeting with a political party after it was constituted on February 3 to look into the demands for a separate Telangana state as well for a united Andhra Pradesh.

Rao, who is spearheading the agitation for a separate Telangana State, TRS MP Vijayashanti and party ideologue C Jaishankar and others were given a patient hearing by the committee for over four hours in two sessions."We heard the delegation for over four hours and we discussed about their reports which run into over 600 pages. They explained their position and their views on the demand," Srikrishna told reporters after the meeting.

The TRS had earlier submitted four voluminous reports to the committee supporting their demand for a separate state.Briefing reporters about the meeting, Rao said the "committee was satisified with the meeting and they told us that our presentations were informative."

"We are victims of broken promises and breach of trust. We are not getting due share of fruits of development. Our resources are being deployed in some other area. In polity also, we are not getting what we are supposed to get. So we stressed the need for a Telangana," he said.

The TRS chief said the merger of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad with Andhra Pradesh in 1953 was "neither unconditional nor eternal.""Even the State Reorganisation Committee then had advised against the merger of the two provinces. Even the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to it...," he said. Srikrishna said the panel will hold another round of consultations with the TRS delegation, if necessary, in the next couple of months.

Rao had been in the forefront of the agitation for a separate Telangana state and it was his fast-unto-death that forced the Centre to announce that it would initiate steps for the formation of a separate state.However, the Centre later said wide-ranging consultations were needed on the issue and appointed the committee.

Earlier, the committee's member secretary Vinod K Duggal received the delegation.
The committee has already received over 60,000 representations from various political parties, civil society organisation and general public.

The Srikrishna Committee will also travel to Hyderabad on April 22 and 23 during which it would hear views from some other political parties on the issue.