Hyderabad, October 31: In order to coordinate the activities of several organisations which have been working for the cause of separate Telangana, the intellectuals in the region came together and launched the Telangana Co-Ordination Committee (TCC) here today.
“We will be like watchdogs of the Telangana agitation. Most of the members in the TCC are senior citizens who include IAS and IPS officers, doctors and professors,” TCC chairman Dr A Gopal Kishan told reporters.
TCC members said they would observe Andhra Pradesh Formation Day on November 1 as a black day.
The apprehension that the people of Seema- Andhra region would be sent out of Telangana after the state’s bifurcation was unfounded.
“The fear has been deliberately spread by some vested interests. Telangana has always been a multicultural region. Our fight for separate state is only for self-rule. Any Indian can reside in Telangana irrespective of the region they belong to,” Gopal Kishan said.
Former DGP P Ramulu said several people had misused the Telangana issue in the past for their selfish ends. Even now there were differences among several out fits agitating for Telangana, he said and blamed personality clashes among the leaders for lack of unity.
The formation of AP had forced the Muslims in Telangana to go to the Gulf in search of jobs.
“Rural people of the region got attracted to leftist ideology because of continued under-development of the region. The only solution for all these problems is formation of a separate Telangana state,” Ramulu said.
The TCC took serious note of the argument that Hyderabad and Nalgonda together should be made a union territory. MLC Chukka Ramaiah said the argument had been made by the people who had no knowledge of the history.
“Telangana history is associated with Hyderabad, any attempt to make Hyderabad a union territory will be rejected by the people of the region and it will only lead to further intensification of the agitation,” Ramaiah said.
The TCC members condemned the vandalisation of Potti Sriramulu statue yesterday by some unidentified persons.
–Agencies