Hyderabad: The Group of Ministers on Telangana were unable to complete the final draft of the Telangana Bill on Tuesday. “We still have some work to complete. We are going to sit again tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8 pm to finalise everything,”
Union home minister and head of the GoM Sushilkumar Shinde told waiting media at North Block late on Tuesday night.
When asked whether it would be called the Telangana Bill or Rayala Telangana Bill, Shinde refused to take the question.
The GoM which sat today for one-and-a-half hours has in principle decided to continue the contentious Article 371D in both the states, besides proposing monitoring boards for the major irrigation projects and a Union Coordination Council under the chairmanship of the Governor to oversee law and order and other specific subjects within the limits of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Despite protests and objections from Telangana Congress leaders and Union ministers, the Rayala Telangana proposal is being pushed in at the last minute, reportedly at the instance of Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The GoM is accordingly reworking various clauses of the Bill.
Even assuming the Union Cabinet in its sitting on December 5 approves the Bill, it may not be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament, which sits from December 5 to 20, as the Bill must be presented to the President and then the state Assembly first.
There was one last attempt to push through another demand on Tuesday. Three Seemandhra ministers — K. Chiranjeevi, Pallam Raju and J.D. Seelam — went to North Block to meet GoM members with a request to declare Hyderabad a Union Territory.
The ministers waited for hours in the home minister’s office as the GoM meeting was going on. When they finally met Shinde and others, Shinde reportedly turned down their request.
Next: Committed to serve Telangana, says PM
Committed to serve Telangana, says PM
Hyderabad: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government is committed to the creation of Telangana state, but did not specify when the Telangana Bill will be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament, that begins on Thursday.
Speaking to media after attending the all-party leaders meet convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Miera Kumar on Tuesday morning, Dr Manmohan Singh said all the requisite formalities must be completed first.
Make use of parliamentary forum constructively: PM
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed the hope that the Telangana Bill will come up during the Winter Session, but at the same time he said that since there are going to be very few sittings in the whole Winter Session, members should make use of the parliamentary forum in a constructive manner.
Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath said there was a consensus among poli-tical parties to table the Telangana Bill in the Winter Session and it will be the government’s endeavour to bring it “as soon as possible.”
This was not good enough for BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, who told the Prime Minister and the parliamentary affairs minister that the Telangana Bill must be introduced as early as possible and if time does not permit the business to be completed by the end of the session on December 20, the session could be extended by a week or 10 days.
Replying to her, Kamal Nath said that for any extension of the parliamentary session he had to talk to ot-her political party leaders, especially members of north-eastern states where the Christmas and New Year season will be celebrated soon. But Sushma Swaraj insisted that the Telangana Bill “must come in this session and should be passed”.
