Hyderabad has always been the bone of contention in the Telangana statehood equation.
Now with the Congress laying down a road map for the formation of Telangana, sources tell rediff.com that the Centre could take control of maintaining the law and order situation in Hyderabad for at least five years.
During the several hours of deliberations, the safety of the people of Rayalseema and Andhra living in Hyderabad had cropped up several times.
The people of Telangana during their agitation for a separate state have often looked at the people of Seema-Andhra with contempt and have accused them of snatching away opportunities.
Although the people of Telangana have repeatedly assured that they would share the capital for five years, they have also stated that they had no intention of creating any trouble for the people of Seema-Andhra.
K T Rama Rao, son of Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekara Rao, says that the people have nothing to worry about their safety. However, those who have done wrong and cheated the public exchequer will sit in jail, 24 hours after the new government of Telangana is formed.
The leaders from Seema-Andhra deliberated with the Congress high command about this issue and said that they could not say with confidence that their people would be safe in Hyderabad once the state is bifurcated.
The Congress, while laying out its road map for Telangana, assured these leaders that adequate measures will be taken to ensure the safety of their people.
A proposal on the cards would be to keep law and order under the control of the Union government for at least five years until people of Seema-Andhra are able to build their new capital.
However, the Congress is also aware that law and order is a subject matter of the state and it cannot have absolute control over the issue.
