At 11.59pm on June 1, 2014, the sky over the Tank Bund in Hyderabad will light up like never before. For one hour, there will be non-stop bursting of crackers to celebrate the formation of a separate Telangana state. The choosing of the venues — Necklace road and Tank Bund – for the grand celebrations that will begin on June 1 midnight — is certainly not because of convenience only. The celebrations are being organized at scores of people but these two venues have greater significance. On March 10, 2011, the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC) organized what it called a ‘Million March’. A million people were to converge on the Tank bund. Thousands of policemen and paramilitary forces took ...

Amid controversy over TRS not inviting the Prime Minister for the swearing-in ceremony of Telangana Chief Minister-designate K Chandrasekhar Rao on June 2, the party today said it will invite Narendra Modi for the formation day of the state, likely to be in mid-June. “We will be visiting Delhi to invite the Prime Minister for the formation day of Telangana, within a couple of days after the swearing-in ceremony,” TRS politburo member and MP B Vinod Kumar said. “The formation day of the new state (Telangana) is likely to be fixed in mid-June for which Modi will be invited,” he said. Asked as to why the Prime Minister was not invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Rao on Monday, Kumar ...

One look at it and even an unlettered person can say it is the emblem of Telangana, given the simplicity and the inner meaning of its design, that every Telanganite can relate to. Perhaps for that very reason, Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief K Chandrasekhar Rao had approved the design within a couple of hours of its coming to his notice and finalised it as the emblem of Telangana. The man behind the emblem is Laxman Alley, a popular artist hailing from Kadirenigudem, a nondescript village in Atmakur mandal of Nalgonda district. He says he never even dreamt of such a good response to the design, which he designed without much expectations. “A well-wisher of mine, who is a high-level ...

The surprising Polavaram Ordinance from centre has poisoned the waters between BJP and TRS. Just when it was felt KCR was getting ready to get into a working relation with centre by accepting Modi’s invite and personally attending his swearing-in, BJP’s Central Govt, comprising Venkaiah Naidu & TDP didn’t think twice in promulgating the Polavaram Ordinance and bought in an unbridgeable gap, in this short time before KCR’s swearing-in. While non-NDA leaders like Jayalalitha, Naveen Patnaik and Mamata Banerjee skipped Modi’s swearing-in, KCR chose to attend and extend his hand to Modi. Now, union cabinet Minister Venkayya Naidu in Delhi said they have no invite from KCR so far for his swearing-in. And it is unlikely they will get any. ...

In a disgraceful way, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu in a press conference on Thursday afternoon admitted publicly that he personally fulfilled the promise of Polavaram made by UPA Govt through the ordinance. After about an hour, the news poured in that the President promulgated the Ordinance. This confirmed our story earlier that Venkaiah Naidu personally got the ordinance signed by President even while the union cabinet lied that they didn’t even discuss the issue. Venkaiah justified his act by saying that there is no controversy on the transfer of 7 mandals to Andhra and that all have agreed it at the time of passage of AP Reorg Bill. Then the natural question is why they had to lie about the ...