The Hindu : Front Page : Sub-committee to look into demand for Telangana

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Saturday, Nov 27, 2004

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Front Page

Sub-committee to look into demand for Telangana

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 26. The United Progressive Alliance has decided to constitute a sub-committee to look into the demand for a separate Telengana State. The decision was taken at a meeting of the UPA Coordination Committee, which met this evening at the residence of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. It authorised the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, to constitute the committee.

The move comes in response to the demand made by Chandrasekhara Rao, leader of the Telengana movement and Minister without portfolio in the Union Government.

Today's meeting of the coordination committee was the first since the formation of the UPA Government at the Centre and was attended by the four Left parties.

The Left had initially taken the stand was that since there was already a UPA Government and Left coordination committee there was no point in it being part of yet another coordination committee. However, they appear to have been persuaded to change their stand by Dr. Singh and Ms. Gandhi.

Wider consultations planned

The UPA has decided to hold wider consultations with the political parties both within the alliance and outside before deciding to go ahead with the Women's Reservation Bill. While the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Left parties are openly in favour of the legislation, others such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Lok Jansakthi Party have objections to the Bill in its present form.

The RJD leader and Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad, has suggested that the Government first try and evolve a consensus on the issue before bringing up the Bill in the House.

Briefing newspersons after the meeting, the Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said the UPA had decided to prioritise its legislative agenda for the coming winter session of Parliament.

It has decided to bring in 11 Bills to replace the ordinances that were issued in the period when Parliament was not in session.

Prominent among the bills that is likely to be introduced are the National Employment Guarantee Bill.

Those who attended the meeting, presided over by Ms. Gandhi, were the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, the Human Resource Development Minister, Arjun Singh, Sharad Pawar of the Nationalist Congress Party, Ram Vilas Paswan (Lok Janshakti Party ), C. Chandrasekhara Rao (TRS), Mehbooba Mufti (PDP) and Lalu Prasad.

The CPI(M) leader, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, and the CPI leader, A.B. Bardhan, attended the meeting as special invitees.

Mr. Chidambaram said the issue of Cabinet expansion did not figure in today's meeting.

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