Lok Satta leader wants special status to R'seema

Lok Satta Party founder and its lone MLA Jayaprakash Narayan on Saturday said he favoured a special status and even the statehood for the four Rayalaseema districts on top of the creation of a separate state of Telangana.

Taking part in the ongoing debate on bifurcation, he argued the four districts would fall short of resources resulting in a revenue deficit of about Rs 9,000 crore after the bifurcation and this could be corrected only by according special status to the region.

"While coastal Andhra and Telangana regions would be financially comfortable, the reverse would be true in the case of Rayalaseema, which falls behind on most of the developmental parameters, including financial resources. The region will get special grants and tax sops like Uttarakhand from the Centre if it was accorded special status," Jayaprakash Narayan said. He said though the creation of Telangana state was necessary and inevitable, the manner in which the issue was being handled by the UPA government was unacceptable, as it did not bother to create consensus among the people of both regions.

Narayan is the first leader from the Seemandhra region to support the division in the Assembly.

AAP supports bifurcation
Meanwhile, Supreme Court lawyer and a prominent leader of the newly-founded Aam Aadmi Party Prashant Bhushan said his party supported the cause of separate statehood for the Telangana region. He reportedly made these comments while addressing a meeting of the local cadre. Following his statement, the party followers raised slogans in support and against of bifurcation, according to reports.