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Bill in limbo
Bill in limbo, separate Telangana, Uddhav Thackeray, Telangana Bill in Parliament. The GoM, according to Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, has decided to meet again on Thursday.
Shinde, Jairam not sure of passing Bill
- Naidu also meets Uddhav Thackeray, Deve Gowda
- Rattled, GoM calls Union ministers from Seemandhra
- Agrees to meet some of their demands
New Delhi: The national capital witnessed a high voltage drama on the issue of separate Telangana raising several questions on whether or not the T Bill would get passed in Parliament. While Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy sat on a silent protest at Jantar Mantar, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu intensified lobbying against introduction of the T Bill in Parliament.
Naidu met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in Mumbai and former prime minister Deve Gowda and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday to mobilise their support to oppose the Bill. Political circles in Delhi feel that all these developments have put a big question mark on the passage of the T Bill in the current session of Parliament.
The BJP, it was learnt, was not in a mood to cooperate as it was also opposed to rushing through the Bill particularly when there was no unanimity among the Congress leaders in the State.
Rattled by these developments, the Centre hurriedly convened a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) and invited the Seemandhra Union Ministers for discussions and made some attempt to mollify their feelings and are learnt to have offered to consider some of the demands they had made about two months back on issues like revenue sharing, education, employment, transferring of certain areas from Bhadrachalam revenue division to the residuary state etc. Barring Panabaka Lakshmi and D Purandeswari all other Ministers attended the meeting.
The GoM, according to Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, has decided to meet again on Thursday. Interestingly, the union cabinet is also scheduled to meet on Thursday. Asked if the T Bill would come before the cabinet, Jairam Ramesh said that he was not sure of it. “We are trying to bring it before the cabinet.” Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde also expressed doubts saying, “Can’t say.”
However, the government asserted that it was committed to introduce the bill in Parliament during this session. This was indicated to the T leaders from the state who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday. According to Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarsimha, the Prime Minister has assured them that the Bill will be introduced in Parliament at any cost. The T leaders later met Union Minister S Jaipal Reddy. They claimed that the government would first introduce the Bill in the Rajya Sabha on February 10 and that no force could stop the creation of separate T state.
