Telangana: Centre lays out bifurcation roadmap, statehood resolution in Winter Session!

The ongoing stir against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh not withstanding, the government has decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and give formal shape to its decision to grant statehood to Telangana. According to senior functionaries of the UPA involved in dealing with the issue, the Centre hopes to pass the Bill granting statehood in the forthcoming Winter Session of Parliament.

After much dithering over the issue for months the Centre has finally decided on road map ahead for the creation of the new state. On Friday, secretaries belonging to the Home, Finance, Planning Commission, Law, Power, Water and Urban development will meet to draw up a list of assets and liabilities, as also the distribution of civil service personnel between the two states – Telangana and Seemandhra. AP governor G. S Narishimhan was in the capital on Thursday and he held a series of meeting with senior functionaries of the government to tie up the administrative loose ends leading up to the bifurcation.

The recommendations made by the secretaries will be taken up by the GoM on Telangana at its meeting on the 7th of November. The GoM will also finalise the draft of the bill and send it to the Cabinet, which in turn will send it to the President. Pranab Mukherjee will in turn send the resolution to the state asking for its view. The AP CM Kiran Reddy will be asked to call for a session of the AP assembly in the first week of December to get the resolution passed.

Significantly even if the state assembly votes against the resolution for the bifurcation of the state, Parliament is well within its right to pass the bill on its own, even without the state’s consent. Under the rules the Bill needs to be passed by a simple majority and given that both the Congress and the BJP are in favor of bifurcation, government sources say the state should become a reality this winter itself.

Source: IndiaToday