TELANGANA AGITATION PICKS UP

New Delhi, 7 October 2006

HYDERABAD, October 8 (INFA): The recent decision of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Chief, K. Chandrasekhar Rao and his colleague A. Narendra to resign from the Union Ministry and pull out of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was inevitable.  Since July 2005, when the TRS withdrew its Ministers from the Andhra Pradesh Government, the pressure has been on the Union Ministers to quit.

While neither the Congress nor the Bharatiya Janata Party has even taken a clear, unequivocal stand on the demand for Telangana as a separate State, the UPA as an alliance remains divided on the issue.

A special sub-committee, headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, could not come to any consensus on the question.  The Left parties, especially the CPM, have opposed the formation of a separate State while recognizing the special problems of the Telangana region and the need for special provisions and measures.

The TRS, it will be recalled, announced August 15 as the deadline for the Congress and the Government to take a final decision on its Statehood demand.  Since the deadline could not be met, the TRS, which has five members in the Lok Sabha, had no option but to leave the Cabinet and the Alliance.

The movement for a separate State of Telangana, first spurred on by support given by the States Reorganisation Commission in 1953, took off in the late 1960s, more than a decade after the constitution of the enlarged State of Andhra Pradesh.

In 1969, a spontaneous movement took a new turn when the Congress Legislators from the Telangana Praja Samithi in a short-lived political revolt.  A realist, he merged his outfit with the Congress in 1971, went on to become Chief Minister of A.P. seven years later.  He then gave the separate Telangana demand.

Rao and his TRS have now decided to re-start their agitation for Telangana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. ---INFA

PROPOSALS FOR NON-CONVENTIONAL ENERGY

NEW DELHI, October 8 (INFA): The Union Ministry for Non-Conventional Energy Sources has received investment proposals of Rs.10,000 crore from the US and Germany to manufacture devices and systems for harnessing non-conventional energy resources under the proposed Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Policy.

The Minister for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Vilas Muttemwar has announced that his Ministry has already received proposals from five States for setting up SEZs to manufacture equipment and systems for non-conventional energy.

These States are Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.  The minimum area required for absorbing the US and Germany proposals would be 1000 hectare of land. ---INFA