Welcome Telangana and yet more states

India is now poised to have its 29th state: Telangana. All members of the ruling UPA coalition have supported the formation of the new state, as has the Congress Working Committee.


The BJP has always been for smaller states. It should not be a problem for the Bill creating Telangana to sail through Parliament. It is a good idea to keep Hyderabad as the provisional capital of both Telangana and coastal Andhra, till a new capital for Andhra Pradesh is built. This could start a small real estate and construction boom in the coastal part of the state.

India needs new towns as part of its urbanisation, in any case. It is welcome that prolonged dither on the subject is over. It is imperative to complete the procedural requirements of forming a new state without wasting time.

Identifying a site for the new capital and finalising a world-class design for it should commence now. People who opposed the creation of Telangana were being unusually myopic and pessimistic. Three new states, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh, were carved out of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh barely 13 years ago.

None has done too badly for itself and their “parent” states remain as well or badly off as they were before the new states were created. Logically, smaller states should be easier to administer and, hopefully, Telangana will prove that as well.

The creation of Telangana is sure to start a clamour for more new states: Vidarbha to be carved out of Maharashtra and Gorkhaland out of Bengal. With just four hill subdivisions, Gorkhaland is too small to become a viable state. There has been a long-term demand for Uttar Pradesh to be divided into at least three states. The time is ripe to set up a second states reorganisation commission, to consider all such demands and generate rational choices on the way ahead.