Seemandhra protests: Congress in damage control mode

Congress on Wednesday constituted a four- member committee headed by A K Antony to hear concerns arising out of the decision to create a separate Telangana state.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has constituted a four- member committee to hear the concerns being expressed arising out of the decision to form a new state of Telangana, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi announced.

Following the announcement on Telangana, there have been similar statehood demands in various parts of the country. Besides Antony, Union minister M Veerappa Moily, who had once been the in-charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, current AICC in-charge Digvijay Singh and political secretary to Congress President Ahmed Patel are members of the panel.

The decision was announced at a time when the issue is creating problems for government in Parliament since Monsoon session began on August 5. Opposition has been saying that Congress was not being able to control its own members. Seven Union ministers from the Seemandhra region had met the Congress President last night and apprised her of the sense of deprivation prevailing in Andhra and Rayalseema regions over the Telangana decision. During the meeting, Gandhi told them that a committee of senior leaders will be formed, which will look into their grievances, as the ministers told her about apprehensions among people in their constituencies.

 During the meeting, the ministers, including M M Pallam Raju, K S Rao, K Chiranjeevi, J D Seelam, Panabaka Lakshmi, D Purandheswari and Kruparani Killi, are learnt to have raised the demand that Hyderabad should be retained as permanent common capital of two Telugu-speaking states on the lines of Chandigarh. T

alking to reporters after the meeting, Chiranjeevi said Gandhi assured them that the grievances of the people from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions will be taken care of. Raju had said our people are feeling insecure because of some of the pronouncements made by Telangana leaders and there is feeling of deprivation... "We represented those matters. She wanted us to express our opinion to the committee."