Vijayamma meets Prez, PM

To fast at Jantar Mantar

• Submits memorandum to keep AP united
• PM feels the absence of a leader like YSR
• Says govt panel will do justice to Seemandhra

Venkat Parsa

New Delhi: Disappointed after the meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, YSRCP honorary president YS Vijayamma has decided to go on fast at Jantar Mantar on Wednesday. The YSRCP delegation called on Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday and pleaded with him to keep Andhra Pradesh united. The delegation submitted a memorandum to the President.

The delegation also called on the Prime Minister, who assured them that a Government Committee would be formed on Telangana, which would address all the concerns of the people of Seemandhra region. This comes close on the heels of Congress president Sonia Gandhi declaring it for the first time on August 24. Just like Sonia Gandhi, even the Prime Minister did not specify what sort of committee it would be. The move has gained currency as just like Sonia Gandhi, he too did not indicate the nature of the proposed Committee.

The Telangana Congress MPs, however, felt that it could be a Group of Ministers (GoM). But the GoM would be created only after the process of creating Telangana had been set in motion.

Emerging from the meeting with Manmohan Singh in his chamber in Parliament House, Y S Vijayamma quoted the Prime Minister as saying that the absence of a leader like late Y S Rajashekhar Reddy was being felt. Had YSR been around, things would not have to such a pass in Andhra Pradesh, the Prime Minister was understood to have told Vijayamma.

The YSRCP delegation also called on NCP supremo and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar in the evening. Led by Vijayamma, the delegation comprised Mekapati Rajmohan Reddy, M V Mysoora Reddy, Umareddi Venkateshwarulu, Shobha Nagi Reddy and Sucharita.

In the memorandum, Vijayamma stated, “The division of a large State like Andhra Pradesh, with a population of 8.50 crore and which has been in existence for 57 years without any valid basis is very complicated. Incidentally, Andhra Pradesh is the first state to be created on linguistic basis in the country. Unless the government takes into confidence various stakeholders from all regions of the state and satisfies them no injustice will be done to any region, they should not go ahead with the process of division of the state. There are unique problems, as far as Andhra Pradesh is concerned.”

Vijayamma also pointed out that the Congress Working Committee (CWC) Resolution on July 30, 2013, decided in favour of Telangana, in supersession of the earlier CWC Resolution of 2001, which favoured the setting up of the Second State Reorganisation Commission. Things have never been the same. Not only Andhra Pradesh has been plunged into political crisis but fresh agitations have cropped all across the country Gorkhaland, Bodoland, Vidarbha, Harit Pradesh, etc.

The memorandum further stated that the state naturally expected the Central Government to come up with proposal on whether it would keep the state united and if so what safeguards it would offer to the people of Telangana. Or, if it proposes to divide the state, what it would do to address the concerns relating to sharing of water and revenue and the future of Hyderabad. Besides, what are the problems of creating a new Capital and other necessary infrastructure to bring it at par with Hyderabad. It expressed shock that the Congress, which never expressed its own view in all the three all-party meetings, suddenly announced its decision in favour of division of the State, without any public debate and discussion on all these critical issues.

Vijayamma said, “We request you to kindly not to take up the issue of division of the state until a satisfactory solution is found for all the problems listed and until people of both regions are satisfied that justice can be done to them. We have been demanding that status quo be maintained in case justice cannot be done for both regions.”