The Hindu : National : I am in control of the situation, says Andhra Chief Minister

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Tuesday, Jan 11, 2011
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National

I am in control of the situation, says Andhra Chief Minister

J. Balaji

N. Kiran Kumar Reddy

NEW DELHI: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday denied the Opposition's charge that Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan was overriding him in running the administration and was calling shots from the Raj Bhavan in view of developments in the State following the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee report on Telangana.

Speaking to TheHindu over the phone from Hyderabad, Mr. Reddy said that such allegations made by a section of the Opposition parties and reports in the media were “not correct.”

Mr. Reddy said he was in control of the situation and everything was peaceful in the State, adding that he knew how to handle them. He also pooh-poohed the Opposition's charge that he was an “ineffective” Chief Minister.

Asked why he had not commented on the recommendations of the Srikrishna Committee, Mr. Reddy said he was not expected to give his opinion on the report since he was holding the post of Chief Minister.

Meanwhile, a former Chief Minister criticised Mr. Reddy for remaining aloof on the Telangana issue and not consulting leaders in the party. “He is not even taking into confidence his own Cabinet colleagues,” the former Chief Minister said, remarking that all the homework was being done by the Governor. He said that though the State was not witnessing any major violence, protests and other kinds of demonstrations were going on, and even the houses of Congress MPs and MLAs in the Telangana region were being laid siege.

The former president of the Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee and Rajya Sabha MP, K. Kesava Rao, said that elected representatives from the Congress in the Telangana region were mounting pressure on the high command to accept the fifth option in the Srikrishna Committee's report — the creation of a separate Telangana State — and that they would await the stand of the high command before taking the next course of action.

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