Srikrishna panel hearing in March

The Justice Srikrishna committee which met for the second time in the national capital on Thursday said that it would start consultations with political parties and other stakeholders from the first week of March.
“The meeting was good. We discussed a number of issues and we will make a quick trip to Hyderabad in the first week of March. We will hold preliminary discussions with important people and organisations concerned,” Justice Srikrishna, former Supreme Court judge and chairperson of the committee told mediapersons after the meeting.
When asked about the legal sanctity of the committee and why the government had not notified it yet, Srikrishna said, “I do not know about that. We are interested in working and the status can come later.”
Member secretary of the panel, Mr V.K. Duggal, said the Union home secretary had informed him and other members about the (mandate of the) committee and that it is a ‘de facto’ notification. Justice Srikrishna said that since the notice was issued in newspapers by the committee inviting views and suggestions on the Telangana issue last week, representations, some against bifurcation and others for it, were pouring in and that the committee had started looking into them.
The state government is getting ready to provide data of revenue and expenditure in each district to the Justice Srikrishna commission. The finance principal secretary, Mr G. Sudheer, has asked 17 core departments to provide information on the budgetary allocations and actual spending besides the projections made for the ensuing financial year. The departments included agriculture, energy, irrigation, health and welfare.
Meanwhile, sources in the TRS, said the party has entrusted party ideologue, Prof. Jayashanker and Vidyasagar Rao, an irrigation expert, to draft a memorandum about the injustice to the region over the years and the need to carve out a separate state to be presented to the Srikrishna committee.