Telangana issue before able panel, says PM

There is no proposal before UPA Govt. for creation of smaller states and the demand for a separate Telangana is being looked into by an eminent committee headed by former justice BN Srikrishna, PM Manmohan Singh said. There is no such proposal for creation of states before the government, Singh said when asked whether there was any move to create new states. He noted that there were demands for the creation of a separate Telangana from Andhra Pradesh which has been referred to a committee. That demand has been referred to a committee under a very distinguished former judge of the Supreme Court justice Srikrishna, the Prime Minister said. Singh also said he cannot offer comments on the issue of creation of new states in the country pending the receipt of the report of the Srikrishna committee. The committee is presently hearing all parties on the T issue and is scheduled to submit its report to Centre by the end of this year. Apart from political parties, various private organisations and associations are submitting their recommendations to the committee. The three major views that are emerging are for the creation of Telangana, for keeping the state united,and merging the Rayalaseema region with Telangana in case the state gets divided. Keeping in mind the diverse views, Srikrishna has been hinting at arriving at a middle path, though he has not specified as to what it is.
============================
Jai Andhra leaders fail to impress T-panel

Representatives of Jai Andhra movement are learned to have failed to provide strong evidence that they had the peoples support and that political parties were associated with the movement since 1956, during their one-our long presentation before the Srikrishna Committee on Monday. The Srikrishna Committee reportedly felt that Jai Andhra was more of an orchestrated movement. Andhra JAC convener S Krishna Murthy told newsmen after the meeting that they had told the committee about the discrimination the Andhra region had suffered with regard to employment, budget allocations for development and injustice meted out in allocation of irrigation water from Godavari and Krishna rivers. The JAC leaders also urged the committee to recommend Vijayawada as the capital of Andhra state.
========================
(source-toi)