TRS, BJP demand Telangana Bill in winter session of Parliament

NEW DELHI: The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and the BJP demanded a bill be introduced on Telangana in the winter session of Parliament at a meeting with the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. The BJP said that concerns of the Seemandhra region should also be addressed.

The GoM met representatives from the TRS, BJP, CPI, Congress and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Tuesday. It will meet the members of the YSR Congress, Telegu Desam Party (TDP) and CPI (M) on Wednesday. Congress representatives included Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narsimha, who has backed the creation of Telangana, and state tourism minister Vatti Vasant Kumar, who is from the Seemandhara region. The GoM will be meeting union ministers from Andhra Pradesh next week. The TRS memorandum to the GoM rejected any "restrictions or conditions" that may be imposed on the new state.

"The proposal of sharing Hyderabad revenue is not only illegal, unethical but also inhuman. Any diversion of revenue is in fact perforating the authority of the Telangana government. That is totally unacceptable to TRS," party chief K Chandrashekar Rao said. He also said the reported move to entrust law and order in Hyderabad to an agency other than state government will "erode the authority of the government and stymie its functioning".

The BJP said there was no commitment from the Central government on when it will bring the bill to Parliament. "Without Congress and the central government making any such commitment on the timeline and on the issues involved in the bifurcation process, asking for our feedback has no meaning. BJP urges the government to come up with a comprehensive development plan for all-round development of both the states of Seemandhara and Telangana," state president G Kishan Reddy said after meeting the GoM. Reddy also stressed that the Centre should address the concerns of Seemandhara in terms of water sharing, besides safety and security.

AIMIM strongly objected to the idea of Hyderabad being a common capital under central control saying this would be unconstitutional. It also said bringing revenue administration in Hyderabad under the purview of the Centre was untenable and impractical. AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi, the MP from Hyderabad, said the idea of putting law and order in Hyderabad under central control would have undesirable consequences.