TRS chief says no to Hyderabad as Union territory

Is ok with sharing city with Andhra for 10 yrs, trashes reports that he asked Seemandhra employees to leave

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) on Sunday said his party would not accept Hyderabad as a Union territory or as a permanent joint capital for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

“We don’t have any objection if the Andhra Pradesh government works from here for 10 years, as announced by the Centre. The Telangana government, however, will not run the administration from here,” he said at a meet-the-press programme in Hyderabad today.

Stating that he was not bothered about the protests in Seemandhra, KCR said he never asked the Seemandhra employees to leave, as reported in the media. The TRS president on Friday said that government employees from Rayalaseema and Andhra posted in Telangana would have to go back to their respective regions after the formation of the Telangana state.

“I only said that they will have to work for the Andhra government while Telangana employees will work for the Telangana government,” he said, adding that the Telugu film industry would remain in Hyderabad and would be developed further.

Meanwhile, tension gripped the Andhra University campus today, when police forcibly took four students, who were on an indefinite hunger strike for the last six days, to King George Hospital in view of their deteriorating health.

Congress activists organised rallies and human chains to support the United Andhra cause at several Assembly constitutions in Visakhapatnam, while the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) city committee decided to intensify the agitation against the state bifurcation.