Bring Telangana bill in monsoon session: BJP

As Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar chaired an-all party meeting Saturday ahead of the monsoon session of parliament beginning Aug 5, the BJP has demanded that the bill for creating Telangana be taken up during the session.

"... The bill for creation of Telangana should be brought in this session," senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said in a tweet.

The working committee of the ruling Congress has urged the government to initiate process for splitting Andhra Pradesh and forming Telangana. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde has, however, said the bill is not likely to come in the monsoon session.

Sushma Swaraj also listed other issues identified by the BJP for discussion.

"We identified the following issues for discussion in the ensuing session: Uttarakhand tragedy, economic situation with special reference to depreciating rupee, CBI vs IB, dilution of FDI norms and repeated Chinese incursions," she added.

Party spokesperson Sayed Shahnawaz Hussain later said the BJP wants an early discussion on the Uttarakhand tragedy due to floods and landslides and said that people had lost lives due to "mistakes of the state government".

"We also want to discuss the politics being done by the government on the issue of foreign direct investment. The issue of CBI versus IB (in the Ishrat Jahan shootout case) and weakening of the rupee would also be raised," he said.

Senior Intelligence Bureau (IB) official Rajinder Kumar had been questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Ishrat Jahan case. Home Ministry officials had said that sanction of prosecution was needed before the CBI could proceed against the official.

Hussain said the party wants the government to bring an resolution on the creation of Telangana as soon as by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.

Asked about demands from other parts of country for smaller states, he said a state reorganisation commission should be set up.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has urged the opposition for cooperation to pass crucial legislations in the upcoming parliament session.