Union Cabinet not to discuss Telangana issue tomorrow

The Union Cabinet is unlikely to discuss the Telangana issue in its meeting tomorrow. 

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said he had not had the time to go through the draft note on the matter, prepared by his Ministry, which is to be presented before the Cabinet. "The draft has come. But I did not get time to go through it. Most probably, I will see it tomorrow," he said when asked whether there had been any forward movement on the Telangana issue.

After scrutiny by Shinde, the draft will be sent to the Law Ministry for legal vetting. The recommendations of the AK Antony Committee are also likely to be considered by Cabinet. However, the high-level committee hearing concerns of all stakeholders in the wake of the Congress Working Committee decision on a separate Telangana has not yet completed its deliberations as the Defence Minister is indisposed.

Shinde is also expected to place the draft before Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for political clearance. The whole exercise will take time. There is no chance that the note will be presented at tomorrow's Cabinet meeting, a Home Ministry official said. The Cabinet, after giving its approval to the creation of a separate Telangana state, is expected to set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to go threadbare into the issues arising out of the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. That is likely to be followed by a resolution being sent to Andhra Pradesh Assembly regarding the formation of the new state. After formation, Telangana will be the 29th state of India. The CWC, which met on July 30, passed a resolution requesting the Centre to take steps in accordance with the Constitution to form a separate state of Telangana... within a definite timeframe.

On September 2, Shinde had said that a note to initiate the process of carving out Telangana would be presented before the Union Cabinet within 20 days. There have been continuing protests in the non-Telangana parts of Andhra Pradesh against the decision to carve out the new state. The just-concluded Monsoon Session of Parliament also witnessed strong protests by Congress and TDP MPs from the Seemandhra region against any move to divide Andhra Pradesh.