Chidambaram’s statement makes no impact in Osmania

Osmania University, the hotbed of Telangana agitation, was devoid of any activity even as the Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s announcement on a committee for Telangana led to discussions among political circles.

Except the students sitting on the relay hunger strike in front of Arts College and a few hanging around the lawns there was no reaction from the agitating students till the evening much to the disappointment of media men.

It was only towards the evening that students gathered in groups and discussed the announcement details as media gathered there.

The non-reaction from students could be attributed to the fact that many members of students JAC are busy in the padayatra in the Telangana areas while a few others are in jail.

‘Not acceptable’

A member of the JAC, Rajesh later told The Hindu that the announcement lacked clarity and was not acceptable to students.

He said the move of Central government was against the wishes of Telangana people and all public representatives should stick to the deadline on resignations to reject Mr. Chidambaram’s announcement. He blamed the MLAs and MPs for failing to put pressure on the Central Government.

Mr. Rajesh alleged that the Government was provoking students booking attempt-to-murder cases against JAC leaders and supporters for participating in agitations.

The teachers JAC also reacted strongly on the announcement.

Gali Vinod Kumar of teachers JAC said the proposed committee should look into finalising the norms for creating Telangana rather than eliciting opinions from different sections.

He demanded that the decision should come in a time-frame acceptable to Telangana people.

Congress leaders hail Chidambaram statement

Telangana Congress MLAs are a relieved lot as the pressure for resigning from the Assembly to honour the Joint Aaction Committee (JAC) deadline is off their minds after Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s statement on constituting a panel on Telangana.

Equally satisfied are the Andhra and Rayalaseema Congress leaders, who feel the panel will give them an opportunity to forcefully put forward their views against bifurcation. They hope to cash in on the panel’s constitution to fearlessly raise its reservations on the separate statehood issue.

APCC president D. Srinivas said all political parties should welcome the initiative and extend cooperation so that the process is completed at the earliest. “Political parties should not precipitate the issue.”

Further he said: “In my view, formation of a committee on such a sensitive problem with eminent people is not an easy task because one should be prepared to associate with such a task. In spite of all this, the Home Minister’s announcement should satisfy people of the State.”

Senior Congress leaders K. Jana Reddy and R. Damodar Reddy exuded confidence that separate State would become a reality in six or seven months.

Mr. Jana Reddy said there was no need for any further agitations and appealed for peace and tranquillity.

Rajahmundry MP Vundavalli Arunkumar said the panel would be set up to look into the problems confronted during bifurcation of the State.