We are sticking to our words on Telangana: Chidambaram

The much-talked about Committee to examine the demand for separate Telangana will be announced next week, Home Minister P Chidamabaram said on Thursday.

"We are almost at the end of concluding that exercise. If all goes well, we should have a committee by the end of this week. We will announce the committee by next week," he told media persons declining to give out the names.

The Home Minister said the government would have more or less finalised the names and will do by the end of this week.

"Perhaps by the next week, the committee will be announced," he said.

Chidambaram in the meeting with political parties from Andhra Pradesh on January 5 had said that its agenda was to "deliberate on the mechanism and lay down a road map for consultations" on the Telangana issue.

The meeting followed Chidambaram's statement on December 23, 2009 when the government put on back burner the formation of the separate state for which it had on December 9, 2009 promised to initiate the process.

On law and order situation in Andhra Pradesh, the Home Minister said much of the agitation has cooled down while there are some protests here and there.

"My greatest regret is that a couple of students reportedly committed suicide. That, I think, should have been completely avoided. Why should children commit suicide? Parents, teachers have responsibility to stop this. But keeping that apart, by and large, things are peaceful there. There is no major law and order violation. We are sticking to our words," he said.