Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: In a bid to straighten out the Telangana tangle, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday called a meeting of top Congress leaders at her residence 10, Janpath.
Sonia’s political advisor Ahmed Patel, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi were present at the meeting to mull over concerns that a separate Telangana state’s creation could cause.
Yesterday reports said that the Centre was considering the Gorkhaland model for Andhra Pradesh.
Highly-placed sources said the UPA government was considering a Telangana Territorial Administration. If the government makes up its mind on such a move, then it would have to further amend Article 371 (D) which would require a two-third majority approval of Parliament, a leading English daily said.
The Article has already provided a special status for 10 backward districts of the Telangana region, the daily added.
The government is expected to announce a decision on Telangana before January 28 – the deadline set by Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
By treading the middle path, the Centre is seeking to ensure peace prevails in both Telangana and Seemandhra regions. It may also choose to call the move an experiment.
The Telangana decision would also help calm tempers in West Bengal where the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration has already warned of restarting its movement for a separate state. If the government carves out a separate state from Andhra Pradesh, the same could have a cascading effect in West Bengal.
A panel set up by the Union government to look into the Telangana issue too had suggested a similar move.
