Hyderabad/New Delhi: Intelligence agencies have alerted the Centre to strengthen security in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh ...
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Hyderabad/New Delhi: Intelligence agencies have alerted the Centre to strengthen security in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh today, based on inputs that there might be an attempt to escalate tension. Extra forces have been rushed to the area. The state is tense over the issue of bifurcation, demanded by one region and vehemently opposed by the other. The fate of the Centre's plan to create a Telangana state hangs in balance, with the government and opposition set for a showdown in Parliament.
Top Union ministers sat up in the night to work out a way to pass the Telangana bill, which creates the new state by dividing Andhra Pradesh, in the Rajya Sabha today. This session of Parliament, the last before general elections due by May, ends tomorrow.
The BJP, which helped pass the bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, now wants a constitutional amendment to empower a common governor to be custodian of security for the 10 years that the two states will share a common capital in Hyderabad. It also wants included a compensation package for Seemandhra, the non-Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh, which fears a smaller share of water, power and revenue once the new state is carved out.
Sources say Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has requested the PM to give special category status to Seemandhra. This is being seen as an attempt to meet the BJP's demands half way.
The Centre is so far adamant that it will not agree to a constitutional amendment, which would not only require two thirds majority to clear, but will also necessitate sending the bill back to the lower house for ratification. The government must pass the bill in both Houses of Parliament by Friday. Disruptions have continued in both Houses.
After the Lok Sabha passed the bill hurriedly and in controversial circumstances with no live telecast on Tuesday, the BJP says it wants all parties to get a chance to debate the bill in the Rajya Sabha. Union minister Rajeev Shukla has said the government will introduce the bill in the Upper House today.
At least two companies of the Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF have been rushed from Tamil Nadu to Andhra Pradesh in view of the latest Intelligence Bureau report on possible trouble in the Telangana region. One company will be deployed in Hyderabad and the other in Kadappa. An RAF (Rapid Action Force) battalion has also been posted as back-up.
Schools and colleges were shut down yesterday because of a bandh called by anti-Telangana politicians including YSR Congress leader Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The main bone of contention between the two regions is Hyderabad the thriving IT hub which will serve as a common capital before becoming the Telangana capital in 10 years. Seemandhra will then have to look for another capital - people in the region say no other city in Andhra Pradesh has the advantages that Hyderabad has.
The Congress wants to rush through the Telangana plan with an eye on political gains from the region in the national elections.
Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister yesterday and also quit his Congress party. "Linking the bifurcation of the state to political gains is wrong," Mr Reddy told NDTV. "I tried my best to prevent Telangana. Sorry, I couldn't," he said. Mr Reddy belongs to Seemandhra.
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