New Delhi, Dec 28 (IANS) The government will take a decision on the issue of carving out a separate Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh in a month, union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Friday.
“A decision will be taken within a month… we have heard the members of various parties… we have noted their views and will brief the government about it,” Shinde told reporters after an all-party meet on the issue.
Noting that the people of Andhra Pradesh were suffering, the home minister appealed to the youth for calm and said the government was taking a decision.
Representatives of eight political parties attended the meeting, which was also attended by Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran kumar Reddy.
“Some will be satisfied and some will not be,” he remarked when asked if the decision would satisfy people of all three regions of the state.
Shinde said this was the last all-party meeting and he was satisfied with it. “The meeting was cordial and every one expressed their views. We have noted (them) down and some of the representatives expressed that the decision should be given as early as possible,” he added.
He declined to reveal the views expressed by the parties, saying it was an in-camera meeting.
Two representatives each of Congress party, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) attended the meeting, which lasted one-and-half hour.
Prominent among those who attended the meet were TRS chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao, TDP’s senior leader Y. Ramakrishnudu and MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi.
A large number of Telangana supporters who had gathered outside North Block raised slogans of ‘Jai Telangana’ when Shinde and the chief minister arrived for the meeting.
Police also arrested a group of Telangana protagonists, including students, for staging a protest, demanding an early decision on the issue.
This was the third all-party meeting. The earlier two, convened in 2010 and 2011 by then union home minister P. Chidambaram, had failed to evolve a consensus.
Chidambaram had announced on Dec 9, 2009 that the process for formation of Telangana state will be initiated.
However, following mass resignations of MPs and state legislators in Andhra and Rayalseema regions, the centre said the process would be initiated after a consensus over the issue.
The demand for separate statehood to Telangana, which comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad, is over four decades old.
The movement was revived by Chandrasekhara Rao by floating TRS in 2000. He went on an indefinite fast in 2009, which finally forced the central government to make a statement.
