Seemandhra Cong leaders want high-level panel to visit AP

Faced with pressure from united Andhra supporters, the ruling Congress leaders from Seemandhra regions today said a committee comprising Union Ministers should tour Andhra Pradesh to look into issues concerning the proposed division of the state.

"A committee comprising Union Ministers should visit Andhra Pradesh. They should focus on issues in the state. Congress alone is not guilty (in the proposed division)," state Finance Minister Anam Ramanarayana Reddy told reporters here.

The committee would help understand concerns of the Seemandhra region, Reddy said.

Observing that Congress alone is not to be blamed for the proposed division, he said they would like to work with the slogan 'Save Andhra Pradesh, Save Congress'.

Reddy was speaking after a meeting of some Andhra Pradesh ministers and other Congress leaders.

His remarks came in the wake of raging united Andhra agitation in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions and the ruling Congress leaders being blamed for the division.

State Congress unit president Botsa Satyanarayana has already urged AICC president Sonia Gandhi to depute the members of A K Antony committee to visit the state.

The A K Antony panel was constituted to go into the situation arising out of the decision to form separate Telangana.

The PCC president, who is likely to visit Delhi tomorrow, is expected to convey the concerns of the Seemandhra leaders to the party leadership there.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) had given its nod for separate Telangana demand on July 30 and protests against proposed division in Seemandhra regions continue unabated.