ARTICLE ON TELANGANA ISSUE: *********************** Telangana issue has been generating a lot of news for the past couple of years. In fact the Telangana issue has been around for over many years now. Here is a look at what has happened over the years and why the Telangana issue still stands unsolved as it does today. Telangana is a new proposed state to be separated out from the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Telangana is the largest of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh state, covering 41.47% of its total area and has 86% Hindu, 12.4% Muslim, and 1.2% Christian population. Since Telangana was merged with Andhra state to form Andhra Pradesh in 1956, there were several agitations in Telangana aimed to invalidate the merger and to nullify the decision to unify the two entities. Demands for a separate Telangana State Demands for carving out a separate Telangana State became more buoyant during 1969. There are quite a few reasons for this:- i. The people of Telangana had several concerns. Their region had a less-developed economy than Andhra, but had a larger revenue base which people of Telangana feared might be diverted for use in Andhra. ii. Andhra that was initially a part of Madras presidency had much better standards of development and education. Telangana on the other hand was more feudal in its approach and much less developed. iii. It was feared that the people of Andhra, who had access to higher standards of education under the British rule, would have an unfair advantage in seeking government and educational jobs. iv. The cultural differences too were apparent. Under the rule of the Nizam the Telangana region bore influences of Northern India. The kind of festivals being celebrated too was different. 1. The Telangana movement gained momentum over decades becoming a widespread political demand of creating a new state from the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh There have been several movements to invalidate the merger of Telangana and Andhra, major ones occurring in 1969, 1972 and 2000s onwards. 2. On 9 December 2009, the Government of India announced the process of forming the standalone Telangana state. However, this process was halted just two weeks later, after violent protests shook Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions in reaction to this announcement and then a committee was appointed on the same issue 3. Sri krishna Committee on Telangana or the Committee for Consultations on the Situation in Andhra Pradesh (CCSAP) is a committee headed by former chief justice B. N. Sri Krishna to look into the demand for separate statehood for Telangana or keep the State united in the present form, Andhra Pradesh. i. The committee was constituted by the Government of India in 3 February 2010 and submitted its report on 30 December 2010 to the Ministry of Home Affairs. ii. It toured all the regions of state extensively and invited people from all sections of the society to give their opinion on the statehood. It received over one lakh petitions and representations from political parties. Committee had recommended different solutions on the issue in their report (a) Maintain status quo this implies treating the issue as basically a law and order/public order challenge to be handled by the state government, not requiring any major intervention by the Union Government. Such an approach is based on the history of the last 54 years when the demand for a separate state of Telangana was dealt with mainly in a political manner by accommodating different interest groups in the government and the party structure. At the same time, it is noticed that the emotional appeal of “Telugu Pride” was invoked to keep separatist sentiments in check with the result that the demand for Telangana subsided but did not entirely disappear. (b) Bifurcation of the State into Seemandhra and Telangana; with Hyderabad as a Union Territory and the two states developing their own capitals in due course (c) Bifurcation of State into Rayala-Telangana and coastal Andhra regions with Hyderabad being an integral part of Rayala-Telangana (d) Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged Hyderabad Metropolis as a separate Union Territory. This Union Territory will have geographical linkage and contiguity via Nalgonda district in the south-east to district Guntur in coastal Andhra and via Mahboobnagar district in the south to Kurnool district in Rayalaseema (e) Bifurcation of the State into Telangana and Seemandhra as per existing boundaries with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra to have a new capital (f) Keeping the State united by simultaneously providing certain definite Constitutional/Statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region –creation of a statutorily empowered Telangana Regional Council Suggestions and courses of action given by committee: (a) Pertaining to administrative measures that need to be taken (b) Relating to constitutional and legal steps to be initiated and the framework to be put in place. It would be seen that several key recommendations which will have a long term impact on sustaining peace and harmony in the state have been made. The Committee strongly felt that irrespective of the solution/ option finally adopted, the Government should examine the recommendations expeditiously for taking further necessary action in a time bound manner Decision took in CWC meeting: 1. After going through all the report and considering that in CWC meeting on 30 July 2013 the ruling Congress party announced its intention to carve Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh as the 29th state of Republic of India. 2. The timeline for the creation of the new state involves an elaborate process, which has been allotted a 122 days, or at least four months. The split has to be approved by the Indian Parliament before the state is officially created. 3. When created, Telangana will consist of 10 districts: Hyderabad, Adilabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahabubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy, and Warangal. With a population topping 35 million people, the new state will have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 Assembly seats. 4. Hyderabad was proposed to be the joint capital for both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for 10 years. This resolution needs to be ratified as law by the Indian parliament.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Aug 2013 20:12:19 +0000
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