Hyderabad, December 06: Senior Congress leader from Telangana region and Congress Working Committee (CWC) member G Venkataswamy today urged AICC President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to ask Andhra Pradesh Government to adopt necessary resolution for creation of separate statehood for Telangana in the State Legislative Assembly.
Talking to newspersons here, he said he had written a letter to Ms Gandhi in this regard.
For the past one week the state was witnessing unprecedented breakdown of law and order situation in Telangana region on the issue of seperate statehood, with all sections of people participating in it, he said and claimed that it was reflecting the strong feeling of the people as the solution of the separate statehood was due and delayed.
The issue of Telangana state was in fact an unfinished agenda of the States Reorganization Commission (SRC) headed by the late Justice Fazal Ali, who had uniquivocally recommended the creation of Telangana state, with a rider that the people of the region would have option of joining their brethren in Andhra Pradesh, provided the Telangana region expressed through a referendum in favour of merger or separate state after trial of five years. But no such referendum was done till now, he alleged.
The former Union Minister said it had been proved repeatedly that small states like Punjab and Haryana had developed economically over the years.
”Telangana region contributes nearly 36 to 40 per cent of the total revenue in Andhra Pradesh and it will be a viable state due to the vast availability of natural resourcaes like coal and limestone, he claimed.
Alleging that in the last 50 years there had been very poor progress in Telangana region and no new projects were established, he claimed that out of Rs 40,000 crore alloted for ‘Jalayagnam’ programme, Rs 39,000 crore was given to Andhra contractors.
——-Agencies