Draft Telangana bill ready, coming to AP Assembly next week!

Stage is set for the introduction of Telangana Bill in Parliament during its winter session commencing on December 5. The Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) which met under the chairmanship of Defence Minister A K Antony on Monday decided to hold the winter session of Parliament from December 5 to 20. The duration of the session has been kept short in view of Assembly elections in five States. Among other things, the Parliament session is likely to witness the introduction of historic Telangana Bill which would make the dream of 29th State of the country, a reality.

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde announced that the process of Telangana State formation would be completed at any cost before the term of the UPA government expires in 2014. This practically means the forthcoming winter session as there is little likelihood of a regular budget session seeing that the schedule for the general elections may coincide with the same. Shinde’s remark corroborates reports that the Draft Bill may be sent to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in the third week of November.

The Group of Ministers, which is engaged in discussions on the Telangana issue at various levels, would submit its report to the Union Cabinet next week. On Monday, the GoM held prolonged discussions with the Central government officials of various departments on some modalities to be adopted post bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. A second round of meetings would be held on November 14 again. The departments have already sent in written replies on the Terms of Reference and Monday’s exercise was a follow-up to clarify the various issues of division of resources.

Source: Metro India