Telangana in five to six months: Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde

NEW DELHI: The Centre will create Telangana in five-six months and a bill to this effect would be introduced in Parliament in the winter session, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Wednesday.

"Usually it takes 8-9 months to complete the process of creating a new state. But we want to create Telangana in five to six months...we will try to achieve this even earlier," Shinde said.

He said there was no need for an all-party meeting on the issue and said parties were free to write to the government with their suggestions. Shinde refused to commit on the point whether the two Rayalseema districts, Anantpur and Kurnool, will ultimately be part of Telangana, saying a Group of Ministers will go into that point. When asked if the Centre was setting a precedent by proceeding on taking a note to the Cabinet on the creation of Telangana without any resolution being passed by the Andhra Pradesh assembly, Shinde said the state was open to pass such a resolution but the same was not mandatory under the Constitution.

"No new precedent is being set. I believe the Andhra Pradesh assembly has once discussed this issue," he said.

Shinde also said that the demand for Vidharbha state was an issue which was "taken up with" the Andhra Pradesh issue but a decision on Telangana was taken first as it is the oldest demand, since 1956. "The Vidharbha issue is also pending for almost 35 years and the state assembly has passed a resolution for it 2-3 times," Shinde said on the demand for statehood in his home state.

Shinde said though states have earlier been bifurcated on linguistic lines, the same would not be the factor for divisions of a state in the future.