Contending that lack of political space and development for Telangana people resulted in creation of the new State, Congress MlA from Andhra Pradesh M Shashidhar Reddy on Sunday demanded that concerns of the region and Seema-Andhra be addressed in a time-bound manner.
Reddy, who is also Vice Chairman of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) here, criticised some political leaders for making “irresponsible” statements on Telangana which disrupted peace and affected business.
Expressing concern over the way the proposal for Telangana was approved, he said solution to one issue should not lead to creation of other problems and suggested a time-bound resolution to address apprehensions of people of the various regions.
“With the decision on Telangana, the concerns of the people of all the regions and in particular their apprehensions need to be addressed. “You have to ensure that acrimony does not crop up again. The apprehension of people of the Seema-Andhara region has to be addressed,” Reddy said.
Reddy, who represents Sanathnagar constituency of Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh legislative Assembly, also slammed YSR Congress party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy for his comments over Telangana.
“He (Jaganmohan) is in opposition. He can say whatever he wants. “His father was probably the first man who in August 2000 got 41 Telanagana MlAs sign a memorandum for the separate State. The memorandum was given to Congress party chairperson when she had visited Hyderabad then,” Reddy claimed. When Jaganmohan had formed his party, he had also said he respect the sentiments of the people for Telangana, he said.
The experience of creating smaller States like Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in the context of increased Maoist activities will also be matter of great concern with the formation of Telangana, “as we share borders with the highly-affected districts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha,” he said.
“There are serious apprehensions about an overall economic slowdown in Telangana.... All these concerns will have to be addressed in a time bound and a very judicious manner,” Reddy added.
Reddy, who had gone to jail for five days in 1970 when he was about 21 years old for participating in Telangana movement spearheaded by his father and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh late Channa Reddy, said he had raised the issue to empower the people of Telangana about 15 years ago.
“The decision to form three new States -- Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand-- was part of the Agenda for Governance when the NDA came to power in March 1998.
“I had at that time come out openly saying that the people of Telangana will once again be reminded about its backwardness and regional disparities and, therefore, concrete steps would be required to address developmental issues in Telangana,” he said.