Panchayat Raj minister K Jana Reddy has said that time has now come to take a decision on the Telangana issue.
Speaking to the media after meeting the union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde here on Sunday, he said solution to the issue was getting delayed because of lack of coordination between leaders of the two regions. He said the Congress high command has recognized the sentiments and aspirations of the people of Telangana.
Stating that the Congress party was facing critical situation with the TDP Chief Chandrababu Naidu and YSRC leader Sharmila undertaking pada yatras, Jana Reddy has said if a decision on the Telangana issue was not taken at the earliest, the situation would slip out of hand. He said 30 MLAs of the Congress and 13 ministers had given a written request to the party high command, demanding Telangana. He said the letter was also faxed to the party president Sonia Gandhi.
Replying to questions on the resignations of Telangana ministers, he said this was the opinion of only few people. He has asserted that they were all ready to resign, if Telangana would become a reality through their resignations. He said Telangana was far more important to them than their posts. On the call for boycott of state formation day on November 1, Jana Reddy has said he had not participated in the celebration last year and would not this year also.
Telangana ministers have on Saturday met the AICC general secretary and state congress in-charge Ghulam Nabi Azad and union minister Vayilar Ravi and requested them to take an early decision on the Telangana issue. However reports said that they received an identical reply from both the leaders. Both the central leaders have said to have told them that they were totally aware of the Telangana issue and questioned them why they were coming to Delhi again and again to tell them what they already knew. It was also reported that the central leaders had advised the state ministers not to unnecessarily waste money on flight tickets.
It may also be mentioned here that the Telangana ministers have complained to the central leaders about the style of functioning of the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy.
It is learnt that Jana Reddy was disappointed that most of the Telangana ministers who promised to join him in Delhi had backtracked. Only Sridhar Babu, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Baswaraju Saraiah and Sudarshan Reddy. Jana was disappointed that most Telangana ministers sent him first, promising that they would follow on the next day. However, most ministers had chosen to ditch him. (NSS)