Home ministry drafting Telangana resolution: Digvijaya

The union home ministry is drafting a resolution for formation of a separate Telangana state, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said Wednesday.

He told reporters in New Delhi after a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi that as soon as the resolution was put to the cabinet, it would be sent to the Andhra Pradesh assembly. He declined to say anything on the time frame.

The Congress Working Committee July 30 had decided to carve a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh. However, the decision triggered strong protests in Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra).

Congress leaders from Seemandhra are demanding a rollback of the decision while their counterparts from Telangana are mounting pressure for speeding up the process.

Government employees in Seemandhra are on an indefinite strike since Aug 13, demanding the central government to withdraw the decision to bifurcate the state.

The Congress leader appealed to the employees to call off the strike saying people of Andhra Pradesh were being unnecessarily harassed.

"When private business is going on, shops are open, private transport is running, private schools and hospitals are working, why are government offices closed?" he asked.

Digvijaya Singh, incharge of party affairs in the state, said the government was prepared to listen to grievances of the employees and take care of their apprehensions.

"We will ensure every single employee of undivided state gets his due after bifurcation," he said.

On the allegations by Congress leaders from Telangana that Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy was acting in a partisan way, the Congress leader said he was responsible for the entire state.

"The chief minister has been elected by united Andhra Pradesh, therefore, his responsibility is not for one region but for the total state," he said.

On some Congress MPs from Seemandhra deciding to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to press for acceptance of their resignations to oppose bifurcation, Digvijaya Singh appealed to them to withdraw the resignations.