T-process will speed up after budget: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday asked the Telangana Congress MPs to observe restraint as the process for Telangana state formation would be hastened up after the General Budget is presented in Parliament. The assurance by the Prime Minister came after Congress MPs from Telangana Congress MPs approached him over the introduction of Telangana statehood Bill in Parliament.

Earlier, the Telangana MPs met incharge of AP affairs M Veerappa Moily, Congress Core Committee member Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia Gandhi’s political advisor Ahmed Patel regarding the introduction of Telangana Bill. Mr Mukherjee and Mr Moily assured the members that the Telangana Bill would be discussed immediately after the passing of Budget.

They appealed to Congress MPs to cooperate and ensure the smooth functioning of House and passage of General Budget. Mr Mukherjee asked the Members not to disturb the proceedings and promised to take up a discussion on Telangana on March 1 or 2.

With this assurance, the MPs promised to cooperate with the government. Earlier, the MPs threatened to stall the proceedings in the House until the introduction of Telangana Bill in the Budget Session. They also threatened that they would resign from their posts.

MP Ponnam Prabhakar stated that the MPs have asked the Prime Minister to stand by the December 9, 2009 statement on the Telangana statehood by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram. Mr Prabhakar also is believed to have complained to the Prime Minister that Governor ESL Narasimhan and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy were forwarding ‘wrong information’ on Telangana issue.

MP Gutta Sukhender appealed to the Prime Minister to recall Governor Narasimhan for providing wrong information to Centre over the state formation demands and for seeking additional forces. He also urged the Prime Minister to speed up the process for the formation of separate state. MP Madhu Yashki and Sarvey satyanarayana threatened to resign to their posts if the Centre delays the Telangana state formation.