Telangana Report out by the Srikrishna Committee

The Telengana Report prepared Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee is out with its recommendations after 11 months of consultation process and scrutiny.  It is in two Volumes comprising of 461 pages and lays out a practicable solution to the Telangana Statehood demand.

The Telengana Report prepared Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee is out with its recommendations after 11 months of consultation process and scrutiny.  It is in two Volumes comprising of 461 pages and lays out a practicable solution to the Telangana Statehood demand.

Sugesstions made in the Report: The Report lays out six options. It favours a united Andhra, but also recommends several options to divide the State into Rayala - Telangana and Seemandhra or into Telangana and coastal Andhra. The Committee recommends Hyderabad (the main issue of contention) for Union Territory status. One of the options suggests that Hyderabad can be made the capital of Rayala - Telangana or Telangana section of Andhra while the other can develop its own capital in due course of time. Yet another option states that Hyderabad can be shared by both the States while they develop their individual capitals in due course.

According to the DNA the report lays out the six options as:

1. Maintain status quo with united Andhra Pradesh

2. Bifurcation into Seemandhra and Telangana with Hyderabad as a Union territory.

3. Bifurcation into Raya Telangana and coastal Andhra, Hyderabad with Raya Telangana.

4. Bifurcation of Telangana and Seemandhra; enlarge Hyderabad as a Union territory

5. Bifurcation of Seemandhra and Telangana with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana

6. United Andhra with provision for Telangana Council

The Press Trust of India reports that Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday said, the Centre wants to find a "just, honourable and practicable solution" to the Telangana statehood demand that has the "widest measure of support among all stakeholders".

Addressing a meeting of leaders of political parties from Andhra Pradesh at which he handed over copies of the Justice B.N. Srikrishna Committee Report, Chidambaram appealed to them to read its recommendations with an "open mind" and give "impartial consideration" to them.

"You will note that I have repeatedly used the phrase 'way forward'. Today in order to reiterate government's intentions to find just, honourable and practicable solutions that has the widest measure of support among all stakeholders.

Parties TRS, TDP and BJP refrained from attending the meeting to discuss the Committee Report.

History: Telangana is a region in Andhra Pradesh, India. The region borders the States of Maharashtra on North-West, Karnataka on West, Chattisgarh and Orissa on North, and Coastal Andhra region on East and Rayalaseema region on South; both these regions were part of the former Andhra State which was merged with Telangana to form the current state of Andhra Pradesh in 1956.

In December 2009, the Government of India announced that the process for the formation of Telangana State would be considered upon introduction and passage of a separation statement by the state assembly of Andhra Pradesh, but retracted its decision after massive protests. The Government of India then constituted a five member committee headed by Justice B. N. Srikrishna to study the feasibility of a separate Telangana State within the Indian Union.

In February 2010 the B.N. Srikrishna five member Committee was constituted headed by former Supreme Court Judge B.N. Srikrishna along with former Nalsar University of Law Director and incumbent Vice Chancellor of National Law University, Delhi, Dr. Ranbir Singh; Dr Abusaleh Shariff, a Senior Research Fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi; Dr. Ravinder Kaur, Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi and Vinod K. Duggal, former Home Secretary doubling as the committee’s Member Secretary formed the committee members.

Mid- February 2010 the Andhra Pradesh police dealt with the Telangana agitations with excess amounts of force which led to Writ Petitions filed by ABN Andhrajyoti News Network reporter and an Osmania University student. They challenged the use of force and entry of police into the Osmania University campus respectively. Justice L. Narasimha Reddy issued a temporary injunction barring the police from erecting barriers within the campus and entering the University. The Division Bench of the High Court held that the barricades were unnecessary.

February 2010 also attracted a strike from 2000 plus lawyers from the Telangana Joint Action Committee who took the fight for a separate state all the way to New Delhi.