National NEWS
Centre Forms Five-member Committee on Telangana
February 3, 2010 Visionmp.com news service
The Centre has formed a five-member expert committee to look into Telangana issue, which will be headed by former Supreme Court Judge BN Srikrishnan, said media reports.
A Home Ministry spokesperson said that the committee will convene wide-ranging consultations wide-ranging consultations with all sections of people and different political parties and groups in Andhra Pradesh, reports said.
Three Telugu Desam MPs and a former Union Minister have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that the terms of reference of the proposed committee on Telangana are not formulated under the stewardship of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, reported The Hindu. In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister on Tuesday, they drew his attention to an article written by Mr. Chidambaram in an English daily on May 18, 2003 to the effect that “there is a strong case for the creation of Vidarbha (out of Maharashtra, population 9.67 crore) and Telangana (out of Andhra Pradesh, population 7.57 crore). Uttar Pradesh and Bihar should be further divided.” The TDP leaders, therefore, wanted that the Centre-State division, presently under the Home Ministry, be immediately transferred to a ‘neutral Ministry’ which did not have “any pre-determined ideas or plans whatsoever on the division of the States.”
Other four members of the committee are Prof (Dr) Ranbir Singh, Vice Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi, Dr Abusaleh Sharif, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi, Dr (Ms) Ravinder Kaur, Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi and Vinod K Duggal, former Home Secretary, who will also function as its Member Secretary, reports said.
According to the spokesman, the terms and references are being drafted and will be finalized in consultations with the Chairman of the Committee and announced shortly, said reports.
In the meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), which has been leading the movement for separate statehood to Telangana, said that it would wait for the terms of reference of the committee before giving its views on it, said reports.
“We are waiting for terms of reference of the committee to know if it is in furtherance to the December 9 statement made by Home Minister P Chidambaram. (If it is so), then we can look forward to it. If it is a step back to explore whether to give Telanagana or not then we will not be happy with it. We are demanding a committee for the formation of Telangana within a timeframe,” K T Rama Rao, TRS MLA and party president K Chandrashekhar Rao’s son, was quoted as saying.
(Based on internet reports)
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