HYDERABAD: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president and Union Minister, Sharad Pawar, said on Monday here today that the UPA Government had decided to accord statehood to Telangana and that this was reflected in the President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam's address to the joint session of Parliament.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the TRS president, K. Chandrasekhara Rao, here on Monday, he said several parties had given their letters of consent for formation of the State to the UPA sub-committee on Telangana. But the Congress and the Left parties had not sent in their letters.

The sub-committee was in the process of seeking the opinion of these parties also.

Mr. Pawar expected the process of forming the State to be expedited soon.

The process was already going on.

Vidarbha issue

He said a national conference of the Nationalist Congress had expressed support to separate Telangana two years ago. That was the reason why he had agreed to attend the meeting organised by the Telangana Rashtra Samiti at Warangal.

Asked if the NCP would also support the cause of separate Vidarbha, Mr. Pawar said the party would extend support if people of the region raised the demand.

To a question, he said there was no need to mount pressure on the Congress to speed up the process of forming Telangana State as it was already on the job.

Later, Mr. Pawar, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao and another Union Minister, A. Narendra, left by road for Warangal.

Other TRS leaders, including former Ministers and MLAs, also left in a convoy of over 200 cars, jeeps and light commercial vehicles from here.

The City police denied permission for a 500-vehicle convoy, which the party planned from Necklace Road, in view of court orders banning rallies.

As a consequence, a few dozens of vehicles were stationed near People's Plaza for about an hour, before a bigger convoy, including a Mercedes Benz with Mr. Pawar and Mr. Rao, turned onto Necklace Road and moved on without stopping.

Police set up barricades to avoid bunching of vehicles and regulate the flow of vehicles.

The DCP, Traffic, Anil Kumar, said police had made arrangements to regulate the convoy to ensure that no inconvenience was caused to road-users.

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