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It's for people to take a call on Telangana: TRS

January 07, 2010 15:58 IST

The process involving the formation of a separate Telangana state will rest largely with the general public rather than the political leaders, Telangana Rashtra Samiti general secretary Subhash Reddy said on Thursday.

A committee comprising both the Home Secretary and the Cabinet Secretary will be formed in the next couple of days and they would receive representations from the people and not the political leaders, he told rediff.com.

As per the discussion with the Home Minister it was decided that the committee would start receiving applications and representations from various people before handing over a report.

During the meeting with Home Minister P Chidambaram, TRS Chief K Chandrasekhar Rao made it clear that the general opinion of the public was that their views were not being taken into account.

"Why should only the political leaders have a say in the matter? The general public too should be given a chance to submit their opinion on the matter," he said.

Further, the TRS chief also told the Home Minister that a time frame to form the state ought to be set, but the maximum the people are willing to wait is months and not years.

Once the committee is set up, the Home and Cabinet secretary would receive applications, opinions and representations from leaders of the various Joint Action Committees, Teachers' Unions, Students' Unions and prominent members of the general public.

These associations or unions will have to collectively seek the opinion of the general public and present it before the committee.

Once this process is complete, the report would be submitted to the Union government.

Based on the representations and depending on the majority voice, the government would take necessary action. If the majority is in favour of Telangana, then a Bill would have to be placed in the assembly, debated by the MLAs and then passed. However, it is likely that there would not be any opposition to the Bill if the majority voice seeks for a separate state.

Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru