Zeenews Bureau
Hyderabad: Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday slammed the Centre for its betrayal on the issue of granting statehood to Telangana and called for a 48-hour bandh in all 10 districts of the region.
"Home Minister Chidambaram’s statement amounts to putting the Telangana issue on the back burner. We have been betrayed once again by the statement of the Home Minister,” KCR said.
"There is no clarity or time frame fixed. In the name of consensus will they take 150 years? How much time they are going to take (for creating Telangana)?" he told a press conference at the residence of Congress leader Jana Reddy and flanked by leaders from other parties.
His reactions came hours after Chidambaram appealed for calm in Andhra Pradesh and said all stakeholders would be consulted on creating a Telangana state.
Rao also appealed to the Centre to immediately begin the constitutional process for forming the new state while announcing that a Joint Action Committee of legislators, MPs and other public representatives of Telangana, as also lawyers, students and others fighting for the new state would be formed to chalk out the future course of action.
While attacking the Centre for backtracking on the issue, the TRS chief said, “Such tactics will only ignite people of Telangana.”
"Already there is uproar in Telangana. Students, lawyers and others are coming out on the streets. We have been patient and calm. Don`t raise the emotions. Don`t play with the people of Telangana otherwise they will not keep quiet," KCR, as Chandrasekhara Rao is known, added.
KCR resigns as MP
In an angry reaction to Chidambaram’s statement on Telangana, Rao today resigned as an MP while five party legislators also sent their resignations to the Speaker of the Andhra Assembly.
Rao sent his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar stressing the need to hold consultations with all political parties on the formation of a separate state.
KCR reportedly faxed his resignation to protest the government move to put the Telangana issue on the backburner.
TRS has two members in the Lok Sabha. Five state legislators of TRS have also resigned.
They sent their resignations to Assembly Speaker Kirankumar Reddy. The TRS has 10 members in 294-member Assembly.
Telangana tense
Alleging that the Central government had betrayed the people of Telangana region, the TRS today called for a 48-hour shutdown in all 10 district of the region.
The BJP has also called for a shutdown in Telangana, comprising Hyderabad and nine other districts, on Thursday. Student groups in various districts have also called for a shutdown.
Tension prevailed around Osmania University campus as students came out on streets raising slogans against the government. They damaged 10 buses and shopkeepers downed shutters in Tarnaka area near the campus.
Students of Nizam colleges and activists of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) also began protests in different parts of Hyderabad.
ABVP has called for closure of all educational institutions in the region. As tension mounted, state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC) stopped bus services in some areas.
Even before Chidambaram made the statement, pro-Telangana students clashed with the police in Warangal town and laid siege to the offices of the Congress and Telugu Desam Party (TDP).
Raising slogans of "Jai Telangana", students of Kakatiya University clashed with police deployed on the university campus. They demanded that all the legislators, irrespective of their political affiliations, resign.
The state government has taken several measures aimed at preventing any untoward incident. A high alert has been sounded in sensitive places of the entire Telangana region and Section 144 has been imposed in parts of Hyderabad.
In addition to this, the state government has deployed a heavy police contingent to maintain law and order in the highly vexed region.
KCR again warned that the people of Telangana were ready to lay down their lives to achieve their goal.
The state of Andhra Pradesh has been caught in a political storm ever since TRS chief went on a hunger strike to press for Telangana’s statehood.
KCR ended his fast on the eleventh day after Centre announced introducing a resolution in the state Assembly for initiating process for the formation of a new state.
TRS has been saying that a resolution in the Assembly was not required as the Indian Constitution and various verdicts of the Supreme Court were clear on creating new states.
