Vatti opposes "hastily drafted" Telangana Bill

State minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar on Thursday slammed the Centre for introducing AP Reorganization Bill 2013 in a "hasty" manner.

Participating in the debate on Telangana Bill in the State Legislative Assembly, Vatti described the process adopted to divide Andhra Pradesh as undemocratic and unconstitutional. He claimed that a majority of people in the State were in favour of united Andhra Pradesh. However, the Centre wishes to divide the State against people's wishes. He said that the Srikrishna Committee too opposed the division. However, by ignoring all recommendations, the Centre went ahead with the process of bifurcation.

Vatti said that the Centre did not react to other demands for smaller States like Vidarbha. However, it responded in a hasty manner on Telangana issue. The Uttar Pradesh Assembly even passed a resolution to divide the State into four parts. But the Centre reacted only to Telangana issue. Further, he said no importance was being given to State Legislative Assembly although the then Home Minister P Chidambaram said in 2009 that Assembly resolution was important to divide the State.

The minister said that the division would badly hurt the people of Seemandhra. All premier institutions like BHEL, IDPL, IICT, CCMB, DRDO, BDL and others are located in Hyderabad. "We have invested all our earnings for the development of Hyderabad and now we are being asked to leave. We strongly oppose the Bill," he said.

At this point minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah raised objection to the use of word "we" by Vatti Vasanth Kumar. He requested the Speaker to remove the word "we" from the records. However, Vatti contended that "we" was not an unparliamentary word and continued his speech.