Meet justifies demand for separate Telangana

Condemning the alleged injustice done to people of Telangana over the past 53 years, the CPI (ML) New Democracy justified the demand for a separate Telangana. Most speakers said that crony capitalism was one of the main reasons for the demand for a separate statehood for Telangana, here on Sunday.

CPI(ML) New Democracy senior leader Mr J.V. Chalapathi Rao said that the Telangana separation issue involved factors such as crony capitalism, identity awareness and above all, political and social injustice meted out to the people and the leadership of Telangana, who placed their trust in a unified Andhra Pradesh.

Mr Chalapathi Rao alleged, “Post Independence, the states were reorganised on a linguistic basis. However, language alone cannot be a common bond that binds people together. Moreover, in the case of Telangana, socio-economic factors were not taken into consideration.”

Andhra University lecturer Dr K. Sekhar put across a point of view that is rarely touched upon. He said, “Not just Telangana, the entire state is today dominated by a group of communities, who belong to a few districts of the central-coastal and the southern regions of Andhra Pradesh. These communities with strong business and political interests perceive the Telangana movement as a Maginot Line to their ever increasing ambitions. Hence, they are trying to stall it.”

Human Rights Forum state general secretary Mr V.S. Krishna said that water and its distribution was at the heart of the issue. He said, “The people of Telangana believe that they have been cheated of their rightful share of the Krishna and Godavari waters and rightfully so. Moreover, the construction of the Polavaram project will cause grave inj-ustice to people living in the highlands of Telangana, lea-ve alone, destroying the liv-elihood of lakhs of tribals.”

The speakers advocated the cause of a separate state and felt that people of Telangana had the right to choose their way.