KCR meets T-panel, warns of war

The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, on Friday strongly advocated bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh stating that there was no “emotional integration of the people of Telangana with those from Andhra since the merger” and warned of civil war if it was not done.

Mr Rao, along with a delegation of party leaders, including Ms Vijayashanti, Mr G. Vinod, experts Prof Jayashanker, Mr Vidyasagar and others made a power point presentation to the Srikrishna Committee in New Delhi and gave a voluminous report seeking separate Telangana. TRS is the first political party to present its view point before Srikrishna Committee.

During the 4-hour meeting, KCR presented a voluminous report on the injustice done to the region over the years pertaining to 10 subjects including irrigation, education, power, financial allocations and employment.

Justice Srikrishna, who heard the TRS delegation, expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the discussion and promised to call the TRS team again in July for further discussions.

“The TRS delegation gave a power-point presentation and also provided documents to push their case. We will hold discussions again. We need to have a closer look at all the documents and papers presented to us,” Justice Srikrishna said after the meeting.

Expressing satisfaction over the outcome of the meeting, Mr Rao said the TRS delegation had made it clear to the panel that bifurcation was the only solution or else there would civil war.

“Merger of Telangana with Andhra was neither unconditional nor eternal. Any alliance cannot be continued by force. The Samaikhya Andhra agitation is pure rubbish. There is no way for people of Telangana to live with Andhra,” KCR remarked.

Mr Rao said while elected representatives like MPs, MLAs from Telangana region support Telangana in one voice; it was not the case in Seema-Andhra region.

“TRS told the committee that there were 5/6 divergent views in Seema-Andhra region. Some want Samaikhya Andhra, some suggest separate Andhra State, some wanted separate north coastal State, some from Rayalaseema are opposed to merger with Andhra while some other want to join with Telangana in the name of Rayala-Telangana,” he said.

The committee agreed that it received divergent views from Seema-Andhra. It sought additional information on some subjects, KCR said.

He said they had provided irrefutable proof of government documents, GOs, CAG reports and other data. “The committee members looked surprised at our inputs,” he said.

Mr Rao requested the committee to look into the “illegal” construction of Pothireddypadu and other projects that harmed the interests of Telangana.

“We brought to the committee’s notice how work on Ichampalli has been set aside and Polavaram taken up,” he said.