NEW DELHI / HYDERABAD: Buckling under pressure the Centre on Wednesday night conceded the demand for a separate Telangana State for which the process will be initiated and an appropriate resolution moved in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. The decision was taken at a late night meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah after two rounds of consultation in the Congress core committee with Sonia Gandhi and senior Cabinet colleagues.
"After these consultations I am making this statement. The process of forming the state of Telangana will be initiated. An appropriate resolution will be moved in the State Assembly," Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters late in the night. Chidambaram said the Centre had requested Rosaiah to withdraw cases against leaders, students and those associated with the 'separate Telangana' agitation. Rosaiah informed the Centre that he would take the necessary steps.
After the nearly one-hour long meeting at the Prime Minister's residence the Chief Minister left for the airport to take a special aircraft back to Hyderabad where he is expected to go straight to the Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences to convey the news to Rao and appeal to him to withdraw the fast.
The Centre and the Congress party were forced to take such a step after a further deterioration in the health of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, whose fast-unto-death entered the 11th day on Wednesday, and simmering tension in the entire Telangana region raised apprehensions of the worst.