CM opposes bifurcation in Assembly debate

Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who took a public posture against the AP Reorganisaton Bill, 2013, started his speech in the state legislative Assembly on Wednesday evening in defence of the status quo.

He chose to take part in the ongoing debate just a day before the six-week time given by the President of India for sending the views of legislature on the draft bifurcation Bill ends.

While the chief minister recently sent a request to President Pranab Mukherjee and the Ministry of Home Affairs seeking extension of time by one more month to complete the debate, no response came from Delhi till Wednesday evening, thus forcing the chief minister to initiate his speech without waiting any further.

He is expected to conclude his remarks on Thursday though his loyalists are hopeful that the Centre might give at least one more week to send the views of the Assembly. The Assembly session began on December 12 and from then onwards more than half of the six-week time was lost in pandemonium on the floor of the House in addition to the intermittent holidays.

The chief minister said the linguistic state of Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956 at the behest of the leaders of both the regions of coastal Andhra and Telangana as against the argument that it was a forced marriage. He also quoted from a speech made by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Parliament in 1972 to support his line of argument that the backwardness of a particular region cannot be the reason to divide the state.

Meanwhile, the AP NGOs Association representing government employees of the Seemandhra region staged a massive dharna in the city opposing the Bill.

The ruling Congress as well as the opposition Telugu Desam Party are vertically divided on regional lines airing views accordingly on the issue of bifurcation. The other two parties, namely, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and YSR Congress Party, have taken a straight line of supporting the cause of Telangana and opposing the bifurcation respectively.

Reddy said both the regions benefited by being a part of Andhra Pradesh as the advantage of a bigger state helped the successive governments to mobilise adequate resources for building large irrigation projects among other developmental activities. The chief minister said he was opposing the bifurcation only in the interest of both the regions and not because of any ill will towards the people of Telangana.

Senior minister K Jana Reddy questioned the chief minister's stand on bifurcation stating that as the leader of the House he cannot oppose the Bill. TRS members also took objection to several of the chief minister's comments during the course of his speech.