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Telangana is now officially India’s 29th state
President’s Rule will be revoked in Telangana but remain imposed in the Seemandhra region till TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu takes oath as CM of the successor state — which will retain the name Andhra Pradesh.
India will get its 29th state on Monday at the stroke of midnight as Telangana comes into official existence with the swearing-in of a new government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao scheduled in Hyderabad.
President’s Rule will be revoked in Telangana but remain imposed in the Seemandhra region till TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu takes oath as CM of the successor state — which will retain the name Andhra Pradesh — on June 8 near Guntur.
Central rule had been imposed on March 1 after N Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned as the CM of Andhra Pradesh.
At around 8:15am Monday, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) supremo Rao will be sworn in by governor ESL Narasimhan, who will serve as the governor for both the states. Narasimhan himself will have to take oath as the governor of Telangana before administering the same to Rao.
After the ceremony, Rao will attend ‘Telangana Formation Day’ celebrations in Hyderabad, which will be joint capital for both states for 10 years, thereafter going to Telangana.
Read: Uneasy calm prevails as two states separate
However, on the eve of the new state’s birth, uneasiness is evident in the region, especially between the CM-designates of the two states.
It is still uncertain whether Rao and Naidu — once TDP colleagues and allies in the 2009 polls — would attend each other’s swearing-in ceremonies.
Moreover, there will be no representative from the Centre at Rao’s Monday oath-taking in the absence of a formal invite from the new regime in Telangana, possible fallout of Rao’s unhappiness with the Centre over the ordinance on the Polavaram project.
On Thursday, Telangana was shut down following a bandh by the TRS, protesting against the ordinance that, it said, was brought in arbitrarily by the Narendra Modi government – of which TDP is a part – transferring parts of Khammam district in Telangana to Seemandhra.
In retaliation, a TDP leader warned the TRS, saying that the TDP would demand Hyderabad be made a union territory if the TRS doesn’t budge on the project that benefits Seemandhra farmers.
Read: The gamble that never paid off for Congress
Another raging issue is the allocation of employees between the two secretariats, with those from one state apprehensive of working for the other side. A few days back, Rao had said that he would not allow a single Seemandhra employee in the Telangana secretariat. With tensions running high, the government postponed final postings of officials.
“We are for cordial relations (with Seemandhra) but there are certain issues to be settled as the two regions separate now,” K Tarakarama Rao, son of the TRS chief, told HT.
Sources said the Centre was working a special package for the Seemandhra region and an allocation could be made in the Union budget in this regard.
A central government-appointed committee has recommended for Telangana 163 posts of officials from the Indian Administrative Service, 112 from the Indian Police Service and 65 from the Indian Foreign Service. At present, there are 284 IAS officers, 209 IPS and 136 IFS officers working in Andhra Pradesh.
The Centre has provisionally allocated 44 IAS officers to Telangana to facilitate its creation, said sources.
HT Edit: AP bifurcation can set a precedent for positive Centre-state relations
