Hyd joint capital for limited period

• Oppose UT status or joint capital for a longer duration
• Antony attends GoM meeting for first time
• Congress, TRS, MIM, BJP, CPI met GoM on Tuesday
• YSRCP, CPM to meet today

The GoM on Telangana on Monday met representatives of five political parties, MIM, BJP, CPI, Congress and TRS in that order and will continue the exercise on Wednesday with the YSRCP and CPM

For the first time all the ministers in the GoM, including Defence Minister A K Antony and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, attended the meeting. Health Minister Gulam Nabi Azad, who was present in the morning session, was not there in the evening session as he had to go out of the capital. The GoM is considering this as an important exercise of interacting with the political parties. The purpose of calling the meeting was to consult all parties on how to go about the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

All the parties which met the GoM on Tuesday said that they had no objection in making Hyderabad as an interim working capital for the residuary state of AP for a reasonable time but opposed any move to make it a Union Territory or joint capital for a prolonged period.

The Congress party which was represented by two leaders, Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha from Telangana and Vatti Vasant Kumar from Seemandhra region, gave two separate reports. Interestingly, PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana also met GoM in the afternoon for about 30 minutes.

The Deputy Chief Minister said Telangana would be a reality by January 1, 2014. He said nothing short of Telangana with 10 districts and Hyderabad as capital city would be acceptable to them. He also made it clear that Bhadrachalam should not be merged with East Godavari. The other recommendations made by him are that the common capital should not extend beyond the revenue district of Hyderabad. He also demanded that since the T state would face shortage of power to the extent of 1300 MW, Centre should supply 1000 MW from the central grid. On behalf of Seemandhra region, Minister Vatti Vasant Kumar gave a representation to the GoM explaining the problems that would arise from bifurcation of the state and pleaded with them to reconsider their decision to divide the state.

The TRS submitted a six-page report on 11 issues mentioned in the terms of reference of the GoM. TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao said they explained what kind of Telangana state people were expecting from the Centre. He said they had made it clear Hyderabad could be joint capital but its jurisdiction should not be extended beyond revenue district. TRS also pleaded with the GoM that the T Bill be introduced immediately. He said a week before the Bill would be introduced in parliament he would go to Delhi and meet the leaders of all political parties to garner support and ensure that it was passed. On the issue of merger, he said TRS would take a call only after the Bill was passed in both Houses of parliament. He said they also made it clear that the Centre-State relations with the 29th state should be same as in the case of other states.

BJP president G Kishan Reddy and Haribabu said that BJP was committed to creation of Telangana but was opposed to the mishandling of the situation by the Congress. He and Haribabu said they explained to the GoM how peacefully BJP had created three new states.

AIMIM leader Assaduddin Owaisi told the GoM that it did not believe in joint and common capital. “Nowhere in the world there is a capital for one country in another. How can you have a capital of a state which is 180 km away in another state? This is not possible," he said. He also pleaded for Rayala Telangana if bifurcation was inevitable.

CPI secretary K Narayana said a separate capital must be created for Seemandhra within 10 years. "They can choose between Vijayawada and Ongole for developing a capital city." He also felt that the GoM should have held a joint meeting of all parties. Meeting them individually was not correct. We don’t know what they really told the GoM. Political parties these days say something inside and talk something outside for public consumption, he added.

No Report at All: Antony

Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday denied that there was any Antony Committee Report. “There is no report as such,” he said.

The Draft Antony Committee Report whose contents are making the rounds, is yet to be adopted by the full Antony Committee. The Draft Report was prepared by a member of the Antony Committee for the consideration of the full committee. The panel is yet to meet and finalise and adopt its report. The Draft Report, however, found its way into the media.