Hyderabad: The Telangana Draft Bill will not be placed before the Union Cabinet on Thursday as originally planned. The Group of Ministers needs more time to give the Bill final shape.
On Wednesday, the GoM held a four-hour-long meeting in North Block, and though most of the work in drafting the Bill has been done, loose ends still have to be tied up and facts checked. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has set a deadline of November 30 for the Bill to come before the Cabinet.
The chief architect of the exercise, Union minister Jairam Ramesh, continued his parleys with officials of the home ministry and law ministry in North Block even after other members of the GoM left late on Wednesday.
Several issues, including sharing of irrigation waters, power and revenue among Telangana and Seemandhra states were finalised. Significantly, the GoM ruled out giving Union Territory status to Hyderabad and also gave the thumbs down to Rayala Telangana.
There was hectic lobbying since Tuesday night on these two proposals. Sources said that the GoM has completely ruled out these two proposals as they fear that the main opposition party, the BJP, which has extended its support to Telangana, won’t agree to either of these proposals.
Sources said that many Telangana Congress leaders have also brought pressure on the GoM to not accept these two proposals. However, a delegation of Seemandhra Union ministers met GoM members on Wednesday morning and sought a special package for Seemandhra, which included ma-king Hyderabad HMDA area a Union Territory.
Union tourism minister Chiranjeevi told the media afterwards, “Division of the state is inevitable and imminent. We cannot stall the process now. That was the reason we put forth our demands to make Hyderabad HMDA area a UT and more sops for Seemandhra region.”
Even AICC general-secretary Digvijay Singh said there is no question of making Hyderabad a UT, but it will be the joint capital for 10 years with some key issues handled by the Governor.
