Hyderabad, February 11: The Centre is likely to announce the terms of reference for Justice Srikrishna committee on the Telangana issue this weekend.
The Congress core group, which met here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, finalised the same, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said.
Sources said the terms of reference, drafted in consultation with Justice Srikrishna, would be placed before the Union Cabinet on Thursday for its approval. After the Cabinet’s green signal, the terms would be announced.
The five-member Srikrishna committee was announced on February 3 nearly a month after Chidambaram met leaders of eight recongised political parties in Andhra Pradesh and discussed ways to move forward on the issue of separate Telangana.
The core committee meeting was attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, Chidambaram and Defence Minister AK Antony.
Back in Hyderabad, Telangana Congress MLAs, MPs and the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhara Rao brainstormed over the terms of reference. Expecting an announcement by evening, Congress Telangana MLAs’ leader R Damodar Reddy along with MLCs KR Amos and K Yadav Reddy went to TRS chief K Chandrasekhara Rao’s residence in the morning and discussed how the terms of reference would be worded.
Later, all of them drove to Congress working committee member K Keshava Rao’s residence and sat for another round of discussion. Meanwhile, Congress MPs from Telangana, Madhu Yashki, Vivek and Manda Jagannadham joined them. Not to be outdone, Small Scale Industries Minister DK Aruna too joined them.
Though the Congress leadership is keen that the MLAs should remain disciplined, they apparently decided to resign if the terms of reference were not meant for creation of a Telangana State.
Chandrasekhara Rao told waiting reporters later: ‘‘We want the terms of reference to reflect the spirit of December 9 statement. The time limit for the panel to complete the assignment should be less than six months. The panel should be for creation of Telangana. Or, we will resort to any sacrifice.’’ The Telangana Congress MLAs are, according to sources, in a defiant mood even though the Congress national leadership has taken a serious view of their warning that they would not allow the Assembly to function (Budget session will start on Feb 15).
Damodar Reddy’s declaration captures their mood: ‘‘We are ready for any sacrifice. At the moment we expect the terms of reference will be in our favour. If not, we will decide what to do,’’ he said, implying that they were serious about the threat to paralyse Assembly.
-Agencies