The Group of Ministers (GoM) assigned to handle the formation of the Telangana state will conduct their first meeting on October 11, under the chairmanship of Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, according to sources.
The other ministers in the GoM are A K Antony (Defence), P Chidambaram (Finance), Ghulam Nabi Azad (Health), M Veerappa Moily (Petroleum), and Jairam Ramesh (Rural Development). Minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy is the special invitee to the GoM.
The Centre reconstituted the GoM on Telangana, on Tuesday, by reducing the number of ministers from 10 to 6. The Union ministers who were dropped from the GoM are M Pallam Raju (HRD), Kapil Sibal (Law), Harish Rawat (Water Resources), Kamal Nath (Urban Development), Oscar Fernandez (Road Transport), Jyotiraditya Scindia (Power), and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
It may be mentioned that no minister from the Andhra Pradesh state has been included in the GoM, which will look into the issues pertaining to the bifurcation of AP to carve out the Telangana state. (INN)