As the relay hunger strike by the legislators from the Telangana region continued on third day on Monday, demanding the Centre to start the process of formation of separate state, the legislators from Andhra and Rayalseema regions were becoming active once again to bring counter pressure on the Central government.
A meeting of Members of Andhra Pradesh assembly and the Members of Legislative Council, of Congress and Praja Rajyam Party from Rayalseema and Andhra region, will be held in Hyderabad on Tuesday to chalk out the future course of action. The covenor of the Seema-Andhra legislators Forum and Congress leader S Shailajanath would convene the meeting.
Addressing the third day of the hunger strike camp, the Telangana Joint Action Committee convenor Prof Kodandaram said that social justice can be achieved only if a separate state is formed. He lashed out at the government for its attempt to privatize the coalmines of Singareni Collieries at a 'throw away price.'
Senior Telugu Desam leader from Telangana N Janardhan Reddy urged the Congress legislators to remain united and build pressure on their party high command for the formation of Telangana state. He told the Congressmen that even after Telangana state is formed, Congress will remain in power in the new state as no other party was in position form its government. He wanted the Congress legislators to stick to the deadline of January 28 to resign from membership of assembly and council.
But the Congress leadership was still mounting pressure on the party legislators not to quit the house. State Congress president D Srinivas met the party legislators from Telangana region on Monday and tried to convince them to withdraw their resignations as per the directions of the party high command.
Ponnam Prabhakar, the convenor of Congress MPs Forum in Andhra Pradesh also criticized the Telangana Joint Action Committee for fixing a deadline of January 28 to force the acceptance of the resignations of the MLAs. He hoped that the Central government would make a statement on Telangana before January 28. He said that a delegation of Congress ministers and MPs would soon go to Delhi to urge the Centre to start the process of Telangana formation at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the Telangana issue figured in Monday's meeting of the state cabinet, with two ministers from the region K Venkat Reddy and D Srihdar Babu questioning the agriculture minister N Raghuveera Reddy why Telangana got lesser amount from the Centre towards crop insurance than the other regions. Raghuveera Reddy defended it saying it was in accordance with the rules.
Chief Minister K Rosaiah told his cabinet colleagues that it was for the Centre to take a decision on Telangana and it was looking after the issue. "Till then let us focus our attention on development activities," he said.
Meanwhile, there was uncertainty over the examinations of Osmania University. While the Osmania University vice chancellor T Tirupati Rao made it clear that the examination will start from Tuesday as per the schedule, the students joint action committee has given a call to boycott the examinations as part of their agitation for Telangana.
The students JAC has launched a maha padyatra across the region. But Rao said that as students had already lost a considerable time of their academic year, examinations will have to be conducted as per the latest schedule.
"We have already postponed the exam twice and can not do it any further," he said.
