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Saturday, January 9, 2010

No panel on Telangana till normalcy returns: Congress

Controversy over Jyoti Basu's hospital



Congress core group, which met on Friday on the Telangana issue, has unanimously said that the 'promised' committee on Telangana will have to wait till normalcy returns to Andhra Pradesh.

Sources said that unless law and order situation was under control and there is normalcy, there is no question of appointing a committee. Though the core group agreed on the need for a mechanism for further consultations on the issue of a separate state of Telangana.

The Centre has been mulling the idea of setting up a committee to hold consultations with all stakeholders.

The all-party meeting on Telangana convened by Home Minister P Chidambaram on January 5 ended with leaders appealing for maintaining peace, harmony and law and order in Andhra Pradesh.

"We, representatives of 8 recognised political parties of Andhra Pradesh, attended the meeting convened by the Home Minister. We have expressed our views at the meeting and they have been noted by the Central government," said a joint statement, signed by leaders, issued at the end of the meeting.

Telangana agitation started after Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao went on a fast-until-death on November 29, demanding a separate state carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

On December 9, after the Centre announced a guarded yes to the creation of Telangana, KCR ended his fast.

But the very next day massive protests broke out in the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions against the bifurcation of the state.

On December 14, MLAs cutting across party lines began resigning in protest against Telangana demanding a unified Andhra Pradesh.

The Centre did a U-turn saying a decision will not be taken till wide-ranging discussions are held with all parties; KCR cried foul accusing the Centre of betrayal and pro-Telangana protests broke out again.

After that, the Centre invited eight political parties from Andhra Pradesh for talks, but no consensus was reached at that meeting.

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