Hectic last-minute lobbying on Telangana
HYDERABAD: On a day of fast-paced developments during which hectic confabulations went on both in private and public, Congress got into the act of arriving at a reasonable consensus to push the Telangana Bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Apart from meetings that Union Minister Jairam Ramesh had with BJP patriarch LK Advani and TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, a chance encounter between Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu was followed up by a detailed meeting that Rahul Gandhi had with ministers and MPs from Seemandhra. Almost all Union Ministers, barring Suryaprakash Reddy, were at the meeting.
Jairam Ramesh is understood to have pleaded with KCR that his party should agree for union territory status to Hyderabad at least for a couple of years or alternatively, allow the Centre to place under Governor's control a few subjects other than law & order ' revenue, municipal administration and higher education.
Sources said KCR refused to entertain the proposal. However whether the Congress will bulldoze it at the last minute on the floor of the House remains to be seen.
Late night, emerging from a meeting with Rahul, Union Minister JD Seelam more or less confirmed what went on during the day by revealing that they wanted Hyderabad to be a union territory at least for a short period but the Congress vice-president pleaded difficulty in obliging them.
Similarly, the Seemandhra leaders brought up the Rayala-Telangana proposal, sources said. However, there are conflicting reports on Rahul Gandhi's response to their request.
All the same, the Seemandhra ministers made several other demands, including special grants to the backward regions of the residuary State, tax concessions for establishing industries, merger of the entire Bhadrachalam division with Seemandhra to facilitate construction of the Polavaram project and continuance of existing educational facilities for students from Seemandhra in Hyderabad.
Seelam hoped that the Centre would favourably consider their suggestions so that they could convince Seemandhra people that justice has been done even if their main demand for keeping the State could not be achieved.
News Posted: 18 February, 2014
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