Decision on Telangana will take time: Shinde

Discussions to evolve a consensus on separate Telangana state is on and the Congress high command will take a final decision on it but it will take time, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said today.

Addressing a press conference, Shinde said discussions on Telangana issue were held in the past and such consultations have been continuing even now.

'It is still on. The process (of consultation) is continuing. It will take time,' he said replying to a question on when a decision on Telangana was expected from the government.

Asked when a decision is expected from the Congress Core Group on the issue, he said he was not the only person to be the member of Congress party's key decision-making body.

'How can I say on core group? I am not the lone person to take a decision. There is a high command. The high command will take a decision,' he said.

According to reports, the Congress top brass is meeting on Friday to take a final view on the vexed Telangana issue which has divided all the parties in Andhra Pradesh on regional lines.

Party General Secretary Digvijay Singh, who is in-charge of the party affairs in the state, has already submitted his proposal in this regard to party president Sonia Gandhi as the UPA government weighs options on the demand for separate Telangana.