Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy refused to give his opinion on the 11 points raised by the GoM, stating that the division itself is a “disaster”.
The Chief Minister also argued that the President will find it difficult to process the Reorganisation Bill in the absence of a recommendation from the state Assembly or a recommendation by the Joint Parliamentary Committee, as happened in the case of Punjab and Haryana.
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Apparently echoing the mood of the Chief Minister, state ministers Pitani Satyanarayana and S. Sailajanath also fumed at the Union Ministers. The APNGO state president P. Ashok Babu, who is known to parrot the Chief Minister’s views, also took on the Union ministers from the Seemandhra region and said their demand for a package was “unfortunate”.
Sources said the Chief Minister told the GoM that he wondered why the Telangana leaders insist on a separate state when the move will spell doom for their people.
The new state will have no power for agriculture and industrial needs. It will lose its right to use surplus waters as it becomes an upper riparian state, while the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh, being the lower riparian state, will enjoy the right to use surplus waters.
The Chief Minister also said that there will be no change in the education and employment sectors because the Centre will maintain status quo by continuing Article 371D. The people from the residuary state can still compete for the 20-30 per cent open category in Telangana, he pointed out.
Interestingly, the Chief Minister made use of BJP patriarch L.K. Advani’s opposition to Telangana statehood in Parliament during the NDA regime. Advani had argued that a new state cannot be carved out without approval of the existing state Assembly.
