Telangana bill may be tabled in parliament Tuesday

The government is likely to table the Telangana bill in parliament Tuesday as President Pranab Mukherjee has given his nod for the same, official sources said.

The president gave the green signal for tabling Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, which was sent to him by the union cabinet Friday.

Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is likely to table the bill in Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley, who is the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, to seek his party's support for introducing the bill.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reportedly invited senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and leaders of the opposition in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Jaitley respectively for a dinner on Wednesday, to seek their support for crucial bills including the Telangana bill.

Both houses of parliament were paralysed for the fourth working day Monday over Telangana and some other issues.

MPs from Seemandhra (Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra) have been protesting the government's attempt to go ahead with the process for formation of a Telangana state.

The union cabinet Friday approved the bill, which seeks to create Telangana as India's 29th state, comprising 10 districts with Hyderabad as its capital. The cabinet cleared the bill despite opposition by central ministers from Seemandhra region who want Andhra Pradesh to remain a united state.

Both houses of the Andhra Pradesh assembly Jan 30 passed resolutions by voice vote rejecting the bill sent by the President for its opinion under article 3 of the constitution.

The central government, however, ignored the resolutions and decided to go ahead with the formation of Telangana state as decided in October last year.