The Hindu : Front Page : Report on second SRC creates flutter in city

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Wednesday, Jan 09, 2008
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Report on second SRC creates flutter in city

Congressmen go into a tizzy; AICC leaders finally deny any such move

Photo: Mohd. Yousuf

Mourning the loss: Political leaders at the Hyderabad District Review Committee meeting in a pensive mood on Tuesday. -

HYDERABAD: A report that the Centre had decided to constitute a second States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) left the Congress leaders in jitters and gave the Telangana Rashtra Samithi another opportunity to warn the ruling party against toying with the ‘Telangana sentiment’.

There was a flurry of statements, all critical of the Centre’s decision, until senior Congressmen called up AICC leaders and found that there was no such move now. This provided some respite to Congress leaders who went into a tizzy earlier over the likely negative political fallout of a second SRC.

Some leaders who were attending a meeting of the Hyderabad District Review Committee in Jubilee Hall made frantic calls to New Delhi to check the veracity of the report while others gave instant reactions. K. R. Amos, spokesman for Telangana Congress leaders, said a second SRC would put the party in a tight spot by causing further delay in creating a separate State.

Rajya Sabha member V. Hanumantha Rao said that the second SRC might benefit Vidharbha, but “I doubt if it will have any impact on Telangana at this stage. The Telangana sentiment has penetrated deep into various sections of society,” he said.

In a sharp reaction, the TRS said that people would not forgive the Congress for yet another “cruel joke” on Telangana.

TRS MLAs T. Harish Rao and Nayani Narasimha Reddy dared the Congress MPs and MLAs to quit the party and join the movement for separate statehood.

BJP MLA Kishan Reddy said that there was no need for a second SRC.

When the NDA was in power, it created three States without referring the matter to SRC. Nizamabad MP Madhu Yaskhi, however, gave no credence to the reports on the ground that AICC general secretary Veerappa Moily had stated that a decision on statehood for Telangana could be taken without the second SRC.

Delimitation

“The Congress high command recognises the sentiment of people of Telangana and the urgency in taking a decision on the statehood,” he added. Party sources said the demand for creating separate Telangana, Vidarbha and Haritha Pradesh indeed figured at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) last week to discuss the delimitation exercise but no conclusion was reached.

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