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Dec. 9: Ministers Mr Danam Nagender and Mr Mukesh Gowd alongwith five MLAs from the city have urged the Congress president, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, to make the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation area a Union Territory in the event Telangana is given statehood.

They said Hyderabad, being the fifth largest city in the country with a population of more than 80 lakh, has acquired a cosmopolitan character with people from across the country settled here.

The ministers said the demographic profile of the city has changed tremendously over the years. They also brought to her notice that during the 2009 general elections, people voted out the Telugu Desam-TRS Mahakutami due to their separatist policies.

In another development, Congress MLAs from Telangana region have petitioned to the Congress president urging her to consider the separate statehood issue immediately.
The former home minister, Mr K. Janareddy, the former IT minister, Mr R. Damodar Reddy, and 27 Congress MLAs from the Telangana region on Wednesday faxed a representation to the Congress president stating that the first State Reorganisation Commission had favoured separate statehood for Telangana.

They said almost all sections of society, whether it be government employees, students or intellectuals, are actively participating in street agitations throughout the Telangana region for separate state.

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Andhra Pradesh Minister for Backward Classes Welfare M Mukesh Goud has written a letter to Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi saying "the concerns of various sections of people living in Hyderabad need to be looked into" while taking a decision on the Telangana state demand.

"There is a clamour among the people of Hyderabad, cutting across caste, religion, language and caste barriers, to get Union Territory status for their city so as to preserve its cosmopolitan character and to accelerate its growth as an IT hub, bio-tech, pharma and other emerging technologies.

"The predominant sections of Hyderabadis favour conferring Union Territory status on Hyderabad rather than making it part of Telangana," the minister said in the letter.

Mukesh, who hails from Hyderabad, has raised the demand for granting UT status for Hyderabad along with Health Minister Danam Nagender and seven MLAs hailing from the city too were signatories to the letter.

Mukesh pointed out in his letter that Hyderabad has witnessed unprecedented growth and emerged as the fifth largest city in the country after it was made Greater Hyderabad. It has acquired a cosmopolitan character with the influx of lakhs of people from other parts of Andhra Pradesh and even from the country, he said.

"The demographic profile of the city has changed tremendously over the years and today the native inhabitants constitute only a modest proportion of the total population of about one crore.

"Hyderabad is home to a large number of Central Public Sector Undertakings, scientific research institutes like CCMB, IICT, defence establishments like DRDO, National Space Research Organisation, Nuclear Fuel Complex, many national and international agricultural research stations and major academic institutes," the minister said in the letter.

The twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad also have a sizeable chunk of minorities and these sections entertain serious apprehensions about their future if Greater Hyderabad is made part of separate Telangana state," the minister said.

Citing the results of the general elections this year in which the Telangana Rashtra Samiti was routed and the Telugu Desam Party, which allied with it, lost badly, Mukesh noted that even the voting pattern in the recent elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation clearly reinforced the concerns of minorities and non-local people over the future status of Hyderabad.

"All the sections have apprehensions about their future if a separate Telangana state is formed with Hyderabad as its nerve centre. Their concerns need to be looked into," Mukesh said.

Meanwhile, 25 Congress MLAs, headed by former minister K Jana Reddy and R Damodar Reddy have sent a separate letter to Sonia Gandhi today asking her to take an immediate decision on creation of Telangana state in deference to the aspirations of the people. 

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If Andhra Pradesh is to be split to create a separate Telangana state, then there are similar demands from other regions in the state too. Andhra Pradesh has 23 districts, including the state capital Hyderabad, in three regions; coastal Andhra (nine),  Rayalaseema (four) and Telangana (ten).

Since its inception in 2001, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has been fighting for creation of a separate Telangana state. Telangana region now accounts for 119 of the 294 seats in the Assembly and 17 of the 42 Lok Sabha members.

The TRS feels the struggle for Telangana has now reached a “decisive stage” with the fast-unto-death launched by its leader and former Union Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao 11 days ago.

The TRS, though, is not in full control of the ongoing agitation, what with the students, government employees, lawyers and other sections of the society taking it over.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which in fact had sown the seed for the separate statehood movement with the slogan of ‘One vote, two states’ in 1998, is trying to spearhead it.

The first movement of a separate Telangana state started way back in 1969 and met with a gory end in 1971.

As a counter, the ‘Jai Andhra’ agitation was taken up in 1972-73.

As the fresh ‘movement’ for Telangana is picking up momentum and even acquiring a violent hue now, voices are being raised with the demand for creation of other smaller states by splitting AP further.

Along with Telangana, there is now the demand for a separate ‘Andhra’, separate ‘Rayalaseema’ and even a separate ‘north-coastal Andhra’.  

Topping it all is the demand for making (Greater) Hyderabad a Union Territory! Now, within these demands is the latest addition: a ‘Greater Rayalaseema.

Rayalaseema region actually comprises four districts: Anantapur, Kadapa, Kurnool and Chittoor. It accounts for 52 of the Assembly seats and 8 MPs. Leaders of this region have now raised a demand for including Sri Potti Sriramulu Nellore and Prakasam districts in Rayalaseema, thereby making it a ‘Greater’ state.

SPS Nellore and Prakasam districts are now part of coastal Andhra that stretches up to Srikakulam bordering Orissa, along the Bay of Bengal coast.

This, of course, only if Telangana is indeed separated from Andhra Pradesh. On the other hand, people of north-coastal Andhra, which consists of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts, are demanding that the three districts be formed into a separate state in the event of bifurcating AP.

That would then leave coastal Andhra with only four districts, Guntur, Krishna, West Godavari and East Godavari. Now the coastal Andhra has 123 MLAs and 17 MPs.

Since it is well-developed, has a cosmopolitan character and a ‘greater’ stature with a population touching nearly a crore, the general demand is for converting Hyderabad into a Union Territory like Chandigarh.

Interestingly, people of either Rayalaseema or coastal Andhra are strong proponents of an integrated Andhra Pradesh.

“Our demands are only subject to the formation of Telangana state. Otherwise, we are for a unified AP, they assert.

Political observers feel that the demand for Rayalaseema, north-coastal Andhra or Andhra state is only to ‘dilute’ the Telangana demand. Even the demand for UT status for Hyderabad is also a similar ploy, they point out. It is mostly the Congress leaders who are trying to champion the cause of Rayalaseema, Andhra or north-coastal Andhra.

“It was late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy who encouraged these people only to counter the TRS. Even now the same tactics are being used in the wake of the stepped up agitation for Telangana, a former minister and senior Congress leader from Rayalaseema said.

Of course, students and other sections have also started joining the (revived) ‘Jai Andhra’ movement in important cities like Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Guntur. Some influential Congress MPs are providing tacit support in the name of safeguarding the “Andhra pride and self-respect", observers say.

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