Supporters of Telangana Rastra Samithi party shout slogans as they celebrate the planned creation of Telangana state, in Hyderabad, yesterday.
New Delhi/Hyderabad: Amid pandemonium and a television blackout of the proceedings, the Lok Sabha yesterday passed a bill to carve out a Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh, triggering joy in the Telangana region and protests elsewhere in the southern state.
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill was passed by voice vote in the face of noisy protests by MPs from Seemandhra — as the other two regions (Rayalseema and coastal Andhra) are collectively known — as well as a section of the opposition parties.
The passage of the bill, moved by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, took 90 minutes.
If the bill gets the approval of Rajya Sabha, the Telugu-speaking people will have two states, with Telangana becoming India’s 29th state.
Telangana will have 10 districts including Hyderabad, which will serve as a common capital for a period not exceeding 10 years. The residuary state of Andhra Pradesh will have 13 districts.
The new state would account for 17 seats in parliament.
In a move to assure protection to people from Seemandhra living in Hyderabad, the bill proposed that a common governor of the two states have powers for maintaining law and order in the city, but ignored the demand from Seemandhra leaders that the city be declared a union territory.
Andhra Pradesh was formed in 1956 with the merger of Telangana, then known as Hyderabad State, with Andhra State, which was earlier carved out of Madras State.
With an area of 114,000 square kilometres and a population of 35.2 million, Telangana will be 12th largest state in terms of area and population.
Those opposing the bill massed near Speaker Meira Kumar, some shouting slogans and others holding placards. But they were simply ignored as amendments to the bills were taken up and then the bill was finally declared passed by the lower house.
So high were tempers in the house that a group of Congress members from Andhra Pradesh stood near Shinde as he read out the clauses in a bid to protect him from anti-Telangana MPs.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi watched the proceedings with visible dismay. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was not present.
Participating in the debate, Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj said her party, the BJP, supported the creation of Telangana but not the way it was being done.
She accused the Congress of delaying the process.
A fuming Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, leader of the YSR Congress, which is bitterly against the creation of Telangana, dubbed it “a black day” for the country and called a general strike in Andhra Pradesh today.
The reaction to the development was immediate with central minister D Purandeswari reportedly sending her resignation to Sonia Gandhi.
Three Andhra Pradesh ministers from Seemandhra resigned in protest while Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy is all set to quit today. Pitani Satyanarayana, one of the ministers, said Kiran Reddy would submit his resignation this morning.
Central ministers from Seemandhra hit out at their own party-led government for passing the bill in an “undemocratic” manner.
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