Cabinet delivers pure Telangana - TeluguPeople.com News

NEW DELHI: The day of reckoning has finally arrived for the UPA government on Telangana. After several flip-flops and prolonged dilly dallying, the Centre on Thursday decided to carve out a new Telangana State with 10 districts and Hyderabad as its capital by dividing Andhra Pradesh.

The Union Cabinet, which had a marathon meeting for over three hours at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its stamp of approval to the recommendations of the Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to look into the bifurcation process and the draft bill on re-organisation of Andhra Pradesh.

'The draft Bill will be sent to President of India in a day or two and he, in turn, would refer it to Andhra Pradesh assembly for its opinion. Later, it would come back to the Cabinet for preparation of the final Bill to be introduced in Parliament.

We desire that it would come up before Parliament during the winter session,' Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told the media after the Cabinet meeting.Interestingly, the Cabinet dropped the controversial recommendation of the GoM to form Rayala Telangana State by adding two districts of Rayalaseema ' Kurnool and Anantapur-- to Telangana. This idea was vehemently opposed by various stakeholders.

- Telangana State to have 10 districts, leaving residuary State of AP with 13 districts
- Hyderabad to be common capital for 10 years within GHMC limits
- Law and order to be vested with Telangana State Governor for 10 years
- Expert committee to be constituted within 45 days to look into new capital for AP
- Article 371-D to be continued in both States.
- Polavaram to get national project status.
- Status of existing educational Institutions in Hyderabad to continue for 10 years.
- Separate board for Krishna and Godavari.

The Telangana region observed a near total bandh on Wednesday, following a call given by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi in protest against the Rayala Telangana proposal.

Shinde said the Cabinet had cleared the Telangana Statehood proposal as per CWC resolution of July 30. 'It would comprise 10 districts, while the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh would have 13 districts.

Hyderabad will remain the joint capital of the two States for a period of 10 years,' he said. The Cabinet decided that the common capital region be limited to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) limits for a period of 10 years.

The law and order in the common capital would be vested with Governor of Telangana State during this period and he would be assisted by two advisors to be appointed by the Centre.

The Centre would appoint a river water management board for sharing of Krishna and Godavari rivers. An expert committee would be constituted to identify the new capital for residuary State of Andhra Pradesh within 45 days. And it also decided that the controversial Article 371-D of the Constitution would continue in both the States, so that there is no need for any constitutional amendment.

The Telangana issue has deeply divided the state of 84 million people on regional lines, including cadre of political parties like Congress and TDP. Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has openly rebelled against the party leadership, criticizing the rationale behind dividing the State.The Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samiti, Telugu Desam Party, Communist Party of India and Bharatiya Janata Party gave letters to the Centre in favour of the State's division while All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, YSR Congress Party and Communist Party of India-Marxist opposed the division.

Shinde said the GoM had received about 18,000 representations for and against division of the State from the general public, including the political parties, and had consulted secretaries of various departments over the division of resources, assets and liabilities of the two States.

It consulted reports of union departments of natural resources, power, mines, water resources, law, railways, oil and gas, health, education, personnel, coal, home, and the planning commission among others.

Earlier in the day, the UPA leadership took the main opposition BJP into confidence before the cabinet nod. Finance Minister P Chidambaram had a meeting with the BJP floor leader in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and communicated to her the government's decision on formation of Telangana State with 10 districts, a formulation long favoured by the saffron party.

Meanwhile, the government abandoned an earlier plan that would have made Telangana larger than originally discussed. The Centre's decision came just hours after exit polls showed the BJP winning four of the five states that voted recently.

The BJP had said it would not accept the proposal to add two more districts to the 10 that currently make up Telangana. It's likely sweep of the State elections - the results are due on Sunday ' means that smaller parties are likely to side with it.

That may have prompted the Congress to drop what was being called the Rayala-Telangana proposal, which could have helped it glean dividends in the national elections, due by May.