Telangana History CWC resolution on bifurcation
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CWC resolution on bifurcation
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously passed a resolution On 30 July to create the State of Telangana. The committee also assured that the concerns of people from the remaining regions regarding sharing of water and power resources will be addressed.
KCR hails the decision
TRS welcomed the decision and its chief K. Chadrashekhar Rao said that his party was fine with Hyderabad being the joint capital for ten years .This was seen as an attempt by the INC to merge TRS into itself for the general and provincial elec¬tions after being marginalised in the Rayalaseema and coastal regions by the YSR Congress.
Many parties and politicians including the Chief Minister who hails from Rayalaseema- protested the bill. Some even termed it as “undemocratic”. The congress and YSRCP were wiped out in the following elections, however in all three regions of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
The decision sparked protests by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) in the form of an indefinite strike for Gorkha land. GJM President Bimal Gurung also resigned from the Gorkha land Territorial Administration in demand for Gorkhaland, citing West Bengal government’s interference with its autonomy. It was even speculated by the media that more such moves could gain steam, such as that by the Bundelkhand Mukti Morcha for Bundelkhand.
The next steps towards the re-formation of Telangana, expected by early 2014, are: The national cabinet sharing its plans with the President of India and the Andhra Pradesh legislature. The Prime Minister would then organise a committee to negotiate a consensus between the leaders from the three regions for issues such as sharing revenue and water. Both national houses of parliament would then pass a resolution to create Telangana.
Cabinet approval of Telangana state
October 3, 2013, the Union Cabinet approved the creation of the new State of Telangana. A Group of Ministers (GoM) was created to settle issues con¬cerning the new state and the State of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad will be the shared capital for 10 years, after which it will belong to Telangana, said the Home Minister.
Govt of India set up the “Group of Ministers”(GOM) headed by union home minister Susheel kumar Shindey to address all the issues that need resolution at the central and state govern¬ment levels during the formation of Telangana state. GOM met on October 11 for the first time and released its terms of reference on 16 Oct. GOM met for the second time on October 19 and considered the background notes which had been prepared by the Home Ministry regarding the various issues pertaining to the bifurcation. It also asked feedback from public to send their suggestions pertaining to the specific terms of reference before 5 November.
On 30 October, Union Home Minister Susheel Kumar Shindey called for an all-party meeting, to be attended by representatives of national and region¬al parties of the state, to discuss the issues related to bifurcation. In a letter to eight major political parties in the state, home ministry asked the parties to submit their suggestions to the GoM by November 5, following which an all-party meeting will be held.
On November 13-14 GOM met the representa-tives of all parties of the state to discuss. TDP boy-cotted the meeting. The GOM had meetings including some with CM, Deputy CM, cabinet ministers frorn the state and other state leaders while finalizing the Telangana draft bill.
On 3 December, Talk of including two Rayalaseema districts – Ananthapur and Kurnool districts, in Telangana state was criticized by pro Telangana groups. TRS and JAC called for Telangana wide bandh on December 5, 2013 which had a good response.
On the evening of December 5 2013, cabinet approved the Telangana draft bill prepared by Group of Ministers (GoM). The bill has to be approved by Parliament before it becomes the 29th state of the union
Legislative Proceedings
December 6, 2013: India’s Union Home Ministry sends the Telangana draft bill to The President of India.
11 December, 2013: The President of India reviews the bill and passes it on to the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly to elicit its views, giving it time until 23 January to respond with its views. The bill was urgently hand-delivered the following day,to Assembly Secretariat by the Joint Secretary of Union Home Ministry.
December 16 2013: The Telangana draft bill was introduced in Andhra Pradesh state assembly by deputy speaker Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka in speakers absence. This was met by protests and chaos created by the Seemandhra MLAs.
December 2013 17: Assembly’s proceedings remain disrupted. The Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of the State Assembly decides to discuss the Bill starting the following day This evokes mixed reactions including allegations on Seemandhra leaders’ attempt to derail the bill by delaying the process.
December 18,19 2013: Assembly proceedings continue to be disrupted. The situation forces the speaker, Nadendla Manohar to adjourn the house until 3 January. This was met with protests from the Telangana MLAs.
A Meet with The President
Telangana and Seemaandhra leaders meet The President Pranab Mukherjee vying with each other to complain about the way the Telangana bill was being handled.
January 1 2014: Two days before the start of the next assembly session, the Chief Minister replaces D. Sridhar Babu with S. Sailajanath. This move was criticized as the former hails from Telangana and the latter was actively involved with Samaikyandhra Movement. Sridhar Babu resigns from the cabinet in protest.
January 3,4 2014: Situation fails to improve as Assembly sessions remain disrupted.
January 6 2014: Unable to continue Assembly sessions amid chaos, the speaker requests members to submit written amendments, if any, to the claus¬es of the Bill by 10 January.
January 8 2014: The bill is finally taken up for debate. However, this lasts for only a few minutes with the YSR Congress Party MLAs resuming protests.
January 9: The debate continues only after YSRCP MLAs were suspended. While there was polarization on regional lines, debate more or less turned into a blame game over the state bifurcation issue as every party indulged in a game of political one-upmanship. Congress leader from Seemandhra and minister Vatti Vasanth Kumar spoke opposing the Telangana bill and said bifurcation was against Seemandhra interests.
On January 10, debate started after YSRCP members staged walk out. Among others, TRS floor leader, E Rajender spoke in length supporting Telangana bill while highlighting the grievances of Telangana people and the history of the movement.
CPI floor leader G Mallesh, Congress leader from Telangana and government chief whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy spoke supporting Telangana bill. House was adjorned until 17th January.
After January 17, debate had less disruptions. Chief Minister requested the President 4week addi-tional time for the debate, a move opposed by Telangana leaders. On 23 January, President gave 7days extension, until January 30, for assembly to give its views on Telangana draft bill.
Jan 23-25 2014: The Chief Minister presents his analysis on how the bifurcation is detrimental to both regions, the highlights being the effect on cur¬rent irrigation projects in Telangana and better subsidized electricity given to farmers of Telangana. Telangana MLAs ridicule the Chief Minister and prevent the proceedings citing no opportunity to make a counter argument. The Chief Minister later expresses his opinion as the AP Reorganization Bill- 2013 being defective. Other members view this as an unduly delayed reaction.
Jan 27 2014: Chief Minister Kirankumar Reddy, gave notice to assembly speaker requesting to move resolution rejecting the Telangana bill. The move was criticized by Telangana MLAs including the ministers and deputy chief minister saying that cabinet was not consulted on the subject. They said this “amounts to defying the Union Cabinet, Constitution and President”. After this, no debate was possible in the assembly as Telangana members insisted that speaker reject the Chief minister’s notice.
On 30 January 2014, Andhra Pradesh assembly speaker declares that assembly completed the debate and all the members gave their views. He said, he would send to the President of India a com¬pilation of 9,072 suggestions and amendments he received in writing from members, including 87 members who had spoken on the Bill in the house. Further he accepted the Chief minister’s notice of resolution to reject the AP Reorganization Bill and declared that resolution passed by voice vote with¬out even waiting for the MLAs in the house to say ‘aye’, admist pandemonium and protests from Telangana MLAs. Earlier in the day Seemandhra members rushed to the well of the House demanding that the resolution moved by the CM, without cabinet approval, be put to vote, those from the Telangana region, including the ministers and deputy chief minister, did the same with the demand that there should be no voting. At 11.30 pm, in what appears to be a coordinated strategy between the speaker, the chief minister and the Seemandhra leg¬islators, all the members from that region converged at the well of the House and formed a wall around the speaker even as Manohar read out the resolu¬tion, put it to voice vote and declared it as having been passed. The bill will now be sent back to President Pranab Mukherjee after which it is slated to be tabled in Parliament. The resolution was placed in the house and was declared passed within 15 seconds.
Analysts say “rejection of Telangana bill” is not valid. Union cabinet minister Jaipal Reddy said that the resolution to reject the Telangana bill was passed in the assembly by cheating and it has no statutory and political sanctity. General secretary of Congress Party and party’s in-charge for Andhra Pradesh, Digvijay Singh said that the bill that the President sent to the Assembly was never meant to be put to vote and said that the Congress high com¬mand and the Center would go ahead with its plans to introduce and pass the Telangana Bill in Parliament during the forthcoming session.
On February 4, GOM cleared the Telangana bill after making few amendments to it based upon the inputs from state assembly.
On February 7 , Union cabinet cleared the Telangana bill and plans to introduce it in upper house of Parliament with 32 amendments. Amendments include the details of financial pack¬age to Seemaandhra to address their concerns.
On February 13, Telangana bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, by Union home minister, Sushilkumar Shinde despite protests from Seemaandhra MPs. In an unprecedented incidence, the use of pepper spray by Seemandhra MP, Lagadapati Rajagopal in the Lok Sabha during the introduction of the bill caused all the members to leave the house and some members to be hospitalized.
18, February 2014: The Telangana Bill is passed by the Lok Sabha with support from the BJP and Congress.
20, February 2014: The Telangana bill is passed by Rajya Sabha with the support of the BJP. The bill receives the assent of the President and published in the gazette on 1 March, 2014.
On March 2014 the Government of India declares 2nd June 2014 the Telangana Formation Day. Telangana is the 29th state of the Union of India with Hyderabad as its capital. Both states will share the capital for 10 years until Seemandhra can establish its own. However, the revenues of Hyderabad will go only to Telangana. No special sta¬tus was accorded to Seemandhra, though it was hinted in the Telangana Bill.
Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief K.Chandrasekhar Rao on 2 June, 2014 took over as the first chief minister of Telangana as the stroke of midnight hour heralded its birth as the 29th state of the Union, ending decades of turbulent struggle for the region in Andhra Pradesh.
It is for the first time since 2000 – when three new states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand were carved out of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh respectively during NDA’s rule at the Centre – that a new state has been created. It is also the first outside the Hindi belt.
KCR, who quit the Telugu Desam Party and floated TRS in 2001 to champion the cause of sepa¬rate statehood, was sworn in as the CM by governor ESL Narasimhan.
His son KT Rama Rao, nephew T.Harish Rao and nine others were also sworn in.
The nine other cabinet ministers were sworn in the new state are Mohammed Mahmood Ali, T.Rajaiah, Nayini Narasimha Reddy, Etela Rajender, Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy, T.Padma Rao, P.Mahender Reddy, Jogu Ramanna and G.Jagadish Reddy.
Earlier in the day Narasimhan, who was appointed as governor of both states, was adminis¬tered the oath of office by Andhra Pradesh high court Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta.
Soon after taking oath, 60-year-old KCR, vowed to root out “political corruption” and establish trans-parency in governance.
Often dubbed as a “rabble rouser” by his detractors, KCR, who steered his party to triumph in the recently concluded Legislative assembly elections, winning 63 of the 119 seats in Telangana region, started off on a populist note by promising to waive farm loans up to Rs. 1 lakh.
“In the next five years, the TRS government will spend Rs. 1 lakh crore for the welfare of the peo¬ple of the new born state.
President Rule Revoked
President’s Rule imposed in Andhra Pradesh was revoked partially early on 2 June, 2014 to facilitate the swearing in of the government in the newly-created state.
The central rule will, however, continue in the residual state of Andhra Pradesh till TDP chief N.Chandrababu Naidu, whose party has emerged victorious in the region, takes oath.
President’s rule was imposed in Andhra Pradesh on March 1 after N Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned as chief minister following Parliament’s nod for bifurcation of the state to create separate Telangana.
Welcoming the formation of Telangana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised complete central support to the new state.
“India gets a new state! We welcome Telangana as our 29th state. Telangana will add strength to our development journey in the coming years,” Modi tweeted.
“Hyderabad: The Group of Ministers looking into issues arising out of the division of the state is contemplating allocating some share of the revenue of Hyderabad city to the residual state of Seemaandhra.
According to sources, the GoM is of the opinion that both the states should get equal revenue after bifurcation. This arrangement will continue as long as Hyderabad remains the joint capital.
The state’s revenue in 2012-13 was Rs 70,548.27 crore. Hyderabad city contributed the lion’s share of Rs 34,100.73 crore; Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema put together contributed Rs 21,538.94 crore, and Telangana Rs 13,506.83 crore.
The state’s annual budget has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore. After the division, the Seemandhra budget will be around Rs 30,000 crore and Telangana state budget will be around Rs 50,000 crore.
According to sources, between 30 and 40 per cent of revenue share will be given to the residuary AP state
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