Panel dodges Telangana question

The much-awaited Justice Sri Krishna Committee report on the highly emotive issue of whether a separate state of Telangana should be carved out of Andhra Pradesh is set to dodge the question. Prasad Nichenametla reports.

The much-awaited Justice Sri Krishna Committee report on the highly emotive issue of whether a separate state of Telangana should be carved out of Andhra Pradesh is set to dodge the question.

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The report, whose deadline for submission to the home ministry is December 31, neither categorically supports nor rejects the creation of Telangana, but instead offers around six different options on what can be done — setting forth the pros and cons in each case.

The committee was formed after a wave of agitations in Andhra. Its report comes at a time when Andhra is again in crisis over Jaganmohan Reddy’s revolt against the ruling Congress.

“Our report will be a treatise on every aspect of Andhra — historical, geographical, socio-economic, and political — covering all the three regions,” a committee member told Hindustan Times.

What are the options being set forth?

They include the consequences of continuing with a united Andhra, of having separate states of Telangana and Coastal Andhra-Rayalaseema, of having three separate states of Telangana, Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema.

“We saw Hyderabad as a symbol of economic stability, essential for a state’s growth,” the member said. “It is Hyderabad, with its growing information technology and pharmaceutical industries and booming real estate that no one wants to part with.”

A last meeting with all the different stakeholders will be held in Hyderabad in mid-December before finalising the report.

The committee was set up last December after violent protests shook the state after the Centre agreed to start the process to create a separate Telangana state. The government had responded to the indefinite fast embarked upon by Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekhara Rao demanding a separate Telangana. But the other two regions promptly responded with fury to the decision — forcing it tp be put on hold.