Group of Ministers meet on Telangana postponed till next week

Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Thursday said that the Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting on Telangana has been postponed till next week due to the absence of Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.

'Today Group of Ministers organized a meeting, but our two important members Chidambaram and Ghulam Nabi Azad were not available today. So the meeting has been postponed till next week. We will have a meeting as soon as possible at a convenient time," he told media here today.

Earlier on November 18, GoM completed the process of discussions with various stakeholders from the Telangana, Seemandhra and Rayalaseema region.

The Supreme Court had refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the Union Cabinet's decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh to carve out a separate Telangana state.

A bench of Justices H L Dattu and Madan B Lokur on November 18 said the petition filed against bifurcation of the state is premature, as Parliament and state legislature are still to pass it.

The Group of Ministers headed by Shinde, was constituted to address all the issues that need resolution at the central and state government levels in the matter.

On October 3, the Union Cabinet had decided to go ahead with the process for the creation of a separate Telangana state carved out from Andhra Pradesh.