Telangana or No-Telangana?

A decision on Telangana or United Andhra is still pending and people from both the sects are protesting hard  so that their demands can be heard and some action taken. Though most of the political parties are throwing ball in each others court , the Central government is taking its own sweet time to take a decision on the matter which has paralyzed the whole state. A decision is now expected in a months time which is surely going to make lots of headlines and can be based upon the All party meeting and Sri Krishna Committee's report.

The committee was constituted by the Government of India in 3 February 2010 and submitted its report on 30 December 2010 to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Committee's report suggested 6 options of which options 1 through 4 were advised to be not feasible. The Fifth option is to bifurcate the State into Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital and Seemandhra which is to have a new capital city. The Committee noted that "Separation is recommended only in case it is unavoidable and if this decision can be reached amicably amongst all the three regions."

The six options presented in the report were as follows:

1. Maintaining Status Quo - Keeping the Andhra Pradesh State as it is with no change in the Telangana, Seemandhra and coastal regions.
2. Bifurcating the state of Andhra Pradesh into Seemandhra and Telengana regions with both of them developing their own capitals in due course of time. Hyderabad to be converted to a Union Territory - This proposal was similar to the Punjab-Haryana-Chandigarh model.
3. Dividing Andhra Pradesh into two states - One of Rayala-Telangana with Hyderabad as its capital and second one of the Coastal Andhra Pradesh
4. Dividing Andhra Pradesh into Seemandhra and Telangana with enlarged Hyderabad Metropolis as a separate Union Territory that will be linked geographically to district Guntur in coastal Andhra via Nalgonda district in the south­east and via Mahboobnagar district in the south to Kurnool district in Rayalaseema
5. Bifurcation of the State into Telangana and Seemandhrâ as per existing boundaries with Hyderabad as the capital of Telangana and Seemandhra to have a new capital. This was the second most preferred option according to the report.
6. Keeping the State united and providing for creation of a statutorily empowered Telangana Regional Council for socio­-economic development and political development of Telangana region. This was the most preferred option'

With Hyderabad being the bone of contention between both the states, the decision is long pending and thus the status-quo is maintained from the Central government. With both the sects wanting Hyderabad as its capital , a decision on this is extremely difficult and Option 6 or Option 2 of  Sri Krishna Committee looks in the offing.