Bifurcation announcement & rollback

Bifurcation announcement 

On 9 December 2009, Union Minister of Home Affairs P. Chidambaram announced that the Indian government would start the process of forming a separate Telangana state, pending the introduction and passage of a separation resolution in the Andhra Pradesh assembly. This resulted in protests across both Andhra and Rayalseema. Students, workers, lawyers & various organizations in the regions launched the Samaikyandhra Movement demanding that the state be kept united.MLAs from these regions also submitted their resignations in protest seeking a reversal of the home minister's statement.

On 23 December, keeping in view the reactions of people of other regions, the Government of India announced that no action on Telangana will be taken until a consensus is reached by all parties and groups in the state.Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema region MLAs started withdrawing their resignations while MLAs and ministers from Telangana started submitting their resignations, and demanded that the Centre take immediate steps to initiate the process of bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.

A Joint Action Committee (also known as JAC or TJAC) comprising political and non-political groups was formed to lead the demand for separate Telangana withOsmania University professor M Kodandaram Reddy as its convenor.

On 3 February, the government appointed a five-member committee headed by Justice SriKrishna to look into the issue.

 Srikrishna Committee- 2010:

The Srikrishna Committee headed by former Chief Justice B. N. Srikrishna toured all the regions of state extensively and invited people from all sections of the society to give their opinion on the statehood. It received over one lakh petitions and representations from political parties, organisations, NGOs and individuals. It also held consultations with political parties and general public while also factoring in the impact of recent developments on different sections of people such as women, children, students, minorities, Other Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

On 16 December 2010, two weeks before the deadline for the submission of the Srikrishna report, TRS organized a public meeting in Warangal. It was estimated that over 2.6 million people attended this meeting. It was reported that even more would have attended, but were stranded due to traffic jams along roads leading to the city.TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to note that the people of Telangana were losing patience. He demanded that the Centre introduce the Bill on Telangana in the next session of Parliament.

Days before the Srikrishna committee submitted its report to the Central government, KCR declared that his party was ready to wash Sonia Gandhi's feet if she agrees to the Telangana demand. He said his party is associated with the movement and was willing to dissolve the party if the state was formed.

Release of the report and summary of findings

The Indian Home Ministry released the 505 page Srikrishna committee on 6 January 2011. The committee opined that most regions of Telangana (excluding Hyderabad) were either "on par or a shade lower" than Coastal Andhra. When Hyderabad is included, Telangana fared better. The most backward of all regions was in fact Rayalaseema. The committee, however, agreed with the violations of GO 610. Most violations, however, have been in the education and health sectors due to dearth of qualified locals. It also noted that the funds released for educational institutions in Telangana were lower than in the other two regions of the state.The committee did not see the Telangana movement as a threat to national integrity. Noting the emotions in the general public about the issue, a perceived neglect in implementation of assurances given to the region,it also said that "The continuing demand, therefore, for a separate Telangana, the Committee felt, has some merit and is not entirely unjustified". The conclusion of the report included the following statements "Therefore, after taking into account all the pros and cons, the Committee did not think it to be the most preferred, but the second best, option. Separation is recommended only in case it is unavoidable and if this decision can be reached amicably amongst all the three regions"

Solutions proposed

The report discusses six solutions to the problem, the preferred option being keeping the State united by simultaneously providing certain definite constitutional and statutory measures for socio-economic development and political empowerment of Telangana region through the creation of a statutorily empowered Telangana Regional Council. The second best option is bifurcation of the State into Telangana and Seemandhra as per existing boundaries, with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra to have a new capital.

Reactions to the report

The eighth chapter of the report was not made public for undisclosed reasons. After a judgement delivered by Justice L Narasimha Reddy of Andhra Pradesh High Court, the contents of the "secret" chapter were submitted to the High Court.The Chief Justice in his 60 page judgement said "The Committee travelled beyond the terms of reference in its endeavour to persuade the Union of India not to accede to the demand for Telangana". The judgement also quoted the SKC report's 8th chapter and said "The manoeuvre suggested by the Committee in its secret supplementary note poses an open challenge, if not threat, to the very system of democracy." The eighth chapter was not make public after division bench comprising the Chief Justice of the AP high court has stayed the order of Justice L Narasimha Reddy.Hence, the facts of the comments of the judge on the eighth chapter remain unverified.