Srikrishna to insist on views

Though both the Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Mr D. Srinivas, and the Telugu Desam chief, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, have avoided submitting reports on behalf of their respective parties to the Justice Srikrishna Committee over the state’s bifurcation issue, they cannot escape from the responsibility for long.

The Srikrishna panel has decided to hear from the parties themselves, especially from the party presidents, on the contentious issue. It has sent letters to all the eight recognised political parties representing the state for a one-on-one meeting.

To start with the committee invited the TRS for a meeting on April 16 at New Delhi. It has specifically asked the party chiefs to see that not more than 10 leaders are sent for these meetings to help it discuss issues relating to division of the state in a cordial atmosphere.

On April 22 and 23, the committee members will meet the TD, CPI, CPI (M) and the Indian Union Muslim League party leaders at Hyderabad to ascertain their views on a “party basis”.

It will hear the Congress and other parties during its next visit to Hyderabad. Till now, the Congress and Telugu Desam leadership

had allowed several delegations within the party to submit their individual and group-wise representations to the Srikrishna committee without bothering to offer the party’s stand on the issue.

This was because party leaders from different regions were divided over the issue and the party leadership tried to avoid getting into trouble by presenting a united stand on the state’s division.

In fact, the Committee wrote to all party leaders to submit their reports with the party’s perspective. Except for these two parties, the six other recognised parties had submitted written representations on behalf of their parties.

Congress turns heat on its T-MLAs

Telangana Congress MLAs will meet on January 21 to decide on the withdrawal of resignations in the wake of the Congress high command sending a stern message on the issue.

Ministers, MPs and MLAs have decided to abide by the diktats of the high command but also decided to continue to bring pressure on the leadership for the formation of Telangana.

On Monday evening, Mr Veerappa Moily, who is in charge of party affairs in the state, called the PCC chief, Mr D. Srinivas, and enquired about the withdrawals of resignations by the MLAs.

Mr Srinivas then convened an emergency meeting with the available party MLAs that was attended by the former ministers, Mr K. Jana Reddy and Mr R. Damodar Reddy. He reportedly told them about the “seriousness” of the message he received from the high command.

After the discussion both the former ministers came out of the meeting and announced that a meeting would be held on January 21 to decide on the withdrawal of resignations.

Earlier, after the Cabinet meeting in the afternoon, the higher education minister, Mr D. Sridhar Babu, said it was not fair of the Telangana Joint Action Committee to fix deadlines and expressed the hope that the Congress high command will look into all aspects of the issue.

Ministers and MPs from Telangana are planning to go to Delhi together to request party leaders to announce a time frame for addressing the issue.

Meanwhile, the Assembly Speaker, Mr N. Kirankumar Reddy, has reportedly decided to have a one-on-one meeting with MLAs who submitted their resignations to ascertain the circumstances that led to the act.

The Speaker decided to hasten the process of with the government planning the Budget Session of the House in the second week of February.