Giving strength to the belief that he has more or less eased his stance on state’s bifurcation in the wake of counselling by AICC point man Digvijaya Singh, chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has, for the first time, said that he is not against formation of Telangana state.
“I am not opposing statehood to Telangana. But, what I say is that if the state is divided, then people of Telangana will be worst-affected when compared to their Seemandhra counterparts. Hence our request to the Centre to reconsider its decision,” he said.
Flanked by PCC president Botcha Satyanarayana, MM Pallam Raju and other Union ministers from Seemandhra, and some state ministers, Kiran addressed mediapersons at AP Bhavan in Delhi on Saturday after all of them had met the prime minister.
Refuting Digvijaya Singh’s claim that he was convinced to the party’s T-decision, saying, “That could be the version of Digvijaya. I am not convinced by the party’s decision. From day one, my stance on Samaikyandhra has been very clear. That has not changed even now.”
Turning to his peers who sat beside him, he said, “All of us (Seemandhra Congress leaders) believe that United AP is good for the entire Telugu people and all regions.”
Kiran said there were several problems which were to be addressed while bifurcating the state. They therefore wanted the Centre to solve those problems first before going ahead with the division process. “The toughest problem is sharing of river water for a length of 300 km between two proposed states, which will be unprecedented in the entire country.
“If a dam is under Centre’s control and two districts, which draw water from the dam, belong to two separate states, there will be a big problem of coordination. Besides, several such problems will arise after bifurcation.
For instance, if a flood like the one in 2009 hits the state again, then there will be a danger of loss of more lives in a bifurcated state than in the united state.
“There are issues relating to the safety and security of Seemandhras who made Hyderabad their home. Article 371 (D) is there. Providing education and medical facilities for Seemandhras after bifurcation is a big problem and issues relating to government employees is another. These issues have to be resolved first,” he said.