Two States will benefit Telugus: Gandra

Hyderabad, Jan 10 : Government Chief Whip Gandra Venkataramana Reddy on Friday claimed that formation of two States would benefit the Telugu speaking people in the longer run.

Participating in the debate on State Reorganisation Bill 2013, Gandra said that the Telangana Bill should be welcome and accepted by the people and leaders of all the regions as formation of two States would help the entire Telugu speaking population. He thanked UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi for accepting the demand for Telangana State despite facing several challenges.

Gandra said that the Centre has consulted all political parties and took a decision in favour of Telangana only after all the major parties gave their consent in writing. Therefore, he said it was wrong to oppose the Telangana Bill at this stage. He said some leaders were trying to question the authority of the Central Government on the use of Article 3. He said that the Telangana Bill has been sent to the Assembly only for its views and therefore, they should be sent to the Centre at the earliest. He hoped that the Parliament would pass the Bill during its next session.

The Government Chief Whip said that the credit of formation of Telangana goes to over 1,000 youth who committed suicide for the statehood cause. He said that such sacrifices forced the Congress Working Committee to take a favourable decision. He also made specific references to the backwardness in Telangana region. Citing an instance, he said while thousands of TMC of Godavari Water was going waste into the sea, no serious efforts were made to start the Pranahita-Chevella project. INN