Normal life was partially disrupted in Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday due to a bandh called by students of Osmania University in protest against the Terms of Reference of the Sri Krishna Committee on the statehood issue.
Services of the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) were disrupted at a few places. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Osmania University Students exempted buses returning from Shiva temples in Telangana. Many pilgrims had thronged the temples yesterday on the occasion of Shivratri.
The bandh call had a partial impact on shops, business establishment and educational institutions. The shutdown was called by the students of Osmania University here, the nerve-centre of the separate statehood agitation, a day after the Telangana panel's agenda was announced by the Centre.
The mandate given to the multi-member committee to also look into the United Andhra Pradesh demand is nothing but cheating the people of Telangana, the JAC said.
Various political parties will be holding meetings in the day to chalk out their plan of action over the ToR. TRS MLAs said they would meet Assembly Speaker to submit fresh resignations. The resignations submitted en masse by MLAs, cutting across party lines, were rejected by the Speaker on the ground that they were not in proper format.
The Ministers and MLAs of the ruling Congress would today decide their future course of action, Civil Supplies Minister J Krishna Rao said last night. Telugu Desam leaders from Telangana as well as the all-party JAC would also meet today to chalk out their plans.
In Hyderabad, TRS MPs and legislators, who had decided to resign to protest the terms of reference of the committee on Telangana, have said they would wait till the Joint Action Committee (JAC) meeting before making the move.
The decision came in the wake of a request from all-party JAC convenor C Kodandaram to hold back their resignations till it takes a call on the matter.
"The JAC is scheduled to meet in the evening and a collective decision will be taken on the issue of resignation," Kodandaram told reporters after a meeting with TRS MLAs in the state assembly.
TRS floor leader in the assembly E Rajender said his party agreed to the request made by the JAC Convenor in the interest of its unity.
He, however, said his party is committed to submit resignation to the Speaker as planned earlier.
TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has been spearheading the Telangana agitation, had yesterday slammed the terms of reference of the Sri Krishna Committee appointed by the Centre as a "betrayal" and directed all his party MPs, MLAs and MLCs to resign from their posts immediately.
In Delhi, the high-level committee on Telangana headed by Justice B N Srikrishna held its first meeting on Saturday to finalise a roadmap to proceed on the issue even as seven students who tried to hold a protest outside the venue of the meeting were detained.
The students, including some girls, were detained outside Vigyan Bahvan when tried to hold a protest. There was a huge police presence outside the meeting venue.
The committee, constituted by the Centre on February 3 nearly two months after it announced that it will initiate steps for the formation of a separate state of Telangana, met here and is understood to have decided on its strategy.
The five-member committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Srikrishna has been given time till the end of this year to submit its report.
The seven-point terms of reference, announced by the Centre yesterday, has mandated the committee to "examine the situation in the state of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the demand for a separate state of Telangana as well as the demand for maintaining the present status of a united Andhra."
The committee includes Ranbir Singh, Abusaleh Shariff, Ravinder Kaur and former Home Secretary Vinod K Duggal as member-secretary.
The panel will hold wide-ranging consultations with political parties, civil socities and other outfits on the Telangana issue, which has divided almost all the political parties in Andhra Pradesh on regional lines.
