Hyderabad: Telangana State’s official song Jaya Jaya He Talangana penned by poet Dr Ande Sri is stuck in the Chief Minister’s Office for the past five months.
Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who cleared state’s official tree, animal, bird, etc. last month, has put official song on hold, which inspired all sections in Telangana to fight for statehood.
In fact, the CM himself has suggested few changes in the song since statehood has been achieved.
The original song talks about Telangana comprising of 10 districts, but Mr Rao has plans to increase the number of districts to 24 soon.
Similary, the song also expresses desire of Telangana becoming a separate state, but since statehood has been achieved now, Mr Rao sought changes in these lyrics.
While these lyrics were replaced with the new ones to suit the changes, there has been no decision from the government side over conferring ‘official song status’ and issue orders to this effect, even six months after Mr Rao took charge as first CM of Telangana.
With inordinate delay on this issue, questions are being raised now whether Mr Rao is giving a second thought on conferring it an officials song status.
TRS MLC Mr Paturi Sudhakar Reddy also raised the question in Legislative Council recently and asked the government to clarify its stand on Jaya Jaya He song.
Education minister Mr G.Jagadish Reddy, who replied, said, "The government is yet to take a decision on conferring official status to this song. It is still under consideration."
However, the minister refused to give any more details on this issue.
"The Telugu textbooks continue to have "Maa Telugu Talliki", the official song of undivided AP. If the TS government delays decision any further on official song, it would not be possible to print Jaya Jaya He Telangana song in new textbooks which will be supplied in the coming academic year," Mr Paturi said.
"Maa Telugu Talliki" used to be recited by students in all the government schools and some private schools in the morning prayer session every day in undivided AP.
But it was stopped in schools located in Telangana after T agitations heightened in 2009. With no official status to Jaya Jaya He Telangana also so far, even this song is not
recited in schools at present. The schools are waiting for an official announcement in this regard for the last six months.
