Hyderabad, April 24: A Delegation of the CPM led by its state secretary BV Raghavulu, which met the Justice Srikrishna Committee Comittee here today, reiterated his party’s opposition to the demand for bifurcation of the state.
The delegation said the party stood by its contention that if a state had to be bifurcated it should be done on the linguistic basis.
The delegation, comprising 10 members drawn from the three regions of the stat e, in its supplementary report submitted to the committee dwelt on the backwardness of the three regions and the need for implementation of land reform, intensification of land distribution and supply of drinking water in backward areas.
It also suggested completion of the irrigations projects on a priority basis in all backward areas.
After submitting a supplementary report the CPM state secretary explained the contents in detail to the commission for nearly 40 minutes.
Srikrishna and other members of the committee posed several questions to the CPM leaders on the socio-economic situation in the state.
The CPM leaders said smaller states would not help the government overcome regional backwardness. Besides, smaller states would not be able to achieve comprehensive development due to insufficient financial resources.
They warned that similar demands would start pouring in if Andhra Pradesh was divided and said the demand for creation of 36 new states grew louder with the intensification of the Telangana movement. The CPM feared that smaller states would be a haven for fundamental forces and would endanger national integrity and secularism.
The CPM leaders empathised with the backwardness of Telangana and Rayalaseema and said not a single agreement had been implemented.
Referring to backwardness of Telangana, they said, quoting government reports, that the region remained backward in the fields of education and employment.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, Raghavulu said backwardness or culture should not be the criterion for bifurcation of the state.
Regional backwardness was on account of the inability of the rulers to empower SCs, STs and minorities and it was necessary that the government come up with programmes to improve their living standards.
Party MLA J Ranga Reddy, MLC Ch Sitaramulu, retried agricultural university professor N Venugopal, party’s state leaders Y Venkateswara Rao, MA Gafoor, K Veraiah and S Malla Reddy, and IDWA leader Punyavati were in the delegation which met the central committee on Telangana.
–Agencies