Hyderabad: Telangana Rastra Samiti president K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday demanded immediate discussion on the Telangana Bill that has been referred to the Assembly by President Pranab Mukherjee.
Speaking to the media at Telangana Bhavan on Sunday evening, Chandrasekhar Rao said not initiating a debate on Telangana right away would amount to an insult to the President.
He said that the issue of the formation of Telangana state was over and done with and there was no point in Seemandhra leaders’ attempts to postpone the debate.
On the contentious Article 371 D, that provides special status for local education and jobs, he said the provision was inserted in the Constitution for the state of Andhra Pradesh.
With the formation of Telangana state, the clause would be extended to both states by way of a simple amendment as part of the Telangana Bill. It does not require a Constitutional amendment as interpreted by Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy and some others, he said.
Referring to a recent judgement by the Andhra Pradesh High Court that Article 371 D would not come in the way of the formation of Telangana state, the TRS chief said if someone thinks that this Article would create further problems, “they are ignorant.”
“I am not denying the rights of Assembly members to express their opinions on the Bill, but they should know that it is only an opinion and they are not entitled to any voting,” Rao said.
He pointed out that several petitions had been filed before the AP High Court as well as before the Supreme Court with a view to creating obstacles for the formation of Telangana, but all the cases were quashed.
