No going back on Telangana: Government, Congress

NEW DELHI: Government and the Congress today junked reports that they were having second thoughts on Telangana issue, asserting there is "no question of going back" on the decision to carve out a separate state.

Acknowledging that there are "strong sentiments" on both sides on the issue and that "we have a serious problem", party spokespeson PC Chacko said that Congress, however, has the mechanism and inner party strength to resolve the issue and "there is no question of revisiting and going back on the decision, we have taken."

Speaking separately Union Minister Manish Tewari also rejected the contention as to whether no note on Telangana coming before the meeting of Union Cabinet today was an indication of the government having a rethink on the issue of separate statehood.

"On the question of Telangana, there have been sensitivities. It's a process that has been under consideration for a fairly long period of time and after very detailed deliberations, after perusing the report of a commission appointed by the Government of India, a certain decision has been taken. That decision obviously continues to hold," he said.

"With regards to fleshing them out in terms of implementation, if I correctly recall, the Home Minister had made it clear that is the process that is under way," the Minister said.

On September 2, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had said that a note to initiate the process of carving out Telangana would be presented before the Union Cabinet within 20 days but it did not come up in the Cabinet meeting today.

Chacko said that there was "no contradiction" in Shinde's statement about forward movement on Telangana and the Antony Committee through meetings with various stakeholders trying to arrive at a consensus on the issue, which has virtually divided political parties in Andhra Pradesh.