Hyderabad, December 12: In a determined bid to douse the eruption in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region in Andhra Pradesh in the wake of Centre’s announcement to start a process for formation of new Telangana state, Chief Minister K Rosaiah tonight ruled out introduction of the bill in the ongoing winter session of the State Assembly.
The Chief Minister Rosaiah reiterated what he had told the State Assembly earlier in the day that he had not received any written communication from Union Home Minister P Chidambaram to initiate process for the creation of a new Telangana state.
”It (Telangana formation bill) is not an easy thing and after receiving a communication (from the Union Home Ministry) there will be a lot of discussions and negotiation with all concerns in both the regions (Telangana and Andhra). In any case the bill cannot be introduced in the current session which has been called for a specific purpose and is for a shorter time”.
Mr Chidambaram in his announcement from New Delhi had only said that the process for the formation of a new state is to start.
”The process what the Union Home Minister referred was not and cannot be done in a moment, in haste nor can be done with an immeidate time frame as it is a complex issue.” The Chief Minister appealed to all section in the both regions for maintaining peace in the overall instersts of the state cautioning that earlier unrest on apprehension and mistrust among people had taken the Andhra Pradesh ”10 years behind”.
The attack on the IT centre at Visakhapatnam today by the agitators should be a wake-up call as it could impact on ”flight of investment in IT and other sector which could gravily impact employment and job creation in the state”.
In a two-page late night appeal, Chief Minister Rosaiah strongly denounced reported statement of Telugu Desam MLAs Umamaheswar Rao and P Kesava that he was allegedly insulted during his visit to Delhi impacting the self respect of Telugu people.
Mr Rosaiah said the two Telugu Desam MLAs could have verified the facts with him before putting out such blatantly false statement in the media. ”On the contrary AICC President Sonia Gandhi had gone out of her way to accomodate and meet him despite his change of schedule and arrival twice in the day because of a traffic jam in New Delhi from the airport enroute her residence.” ”She met me immediately after the core committee meeting though I was delayed and we were there for more than 45 minutes discussing the affairs in the state. Mr Chidambaram, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel were also there during our meeting with Ms Gandhi at her residence.
”Mr Chidambaram had then enquired whether it will be possible to introduce the bill on Telangana. I had told Mr Chidambaram and others that I could introduce the bill but I will not able to pass it because of the tremendous emotional issue which is a very senstive and complex one.” Till now I have not received any communication from Mr Chidambaram on the Telangana issue. Mr Rosaiah said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also had been very accommodating in meeting him though he had just turn from abroad (after his visit from Russia and just attended a core committee meeting of the Congress Party).
”They (Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister and Congress High Command) have a high regards for Andhra and its people” Mr Rosaiah said in a hard hitting rejoinder to Telugu Desam legislator’s allegation that he was shown scant respect during his visit to New Delhi on December 9 to meet Ms Sonia Gandhi on her birthday.
——Agencies