T Lost 7 Mandals Due To KCR Recommendation: CLP

The Congress Legislature Party on Tuesday held Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao responsible for the merger of seven mandals of the Khammam district with the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference at the Assembly Media Point, Deputy CLP leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir, along with Congress legislators G Chinna Reddy, P Ajay Kumar, Ram Reddy and Bhaskar Rao, claimed that it was KCR who had given a representation to the Sri Krishna Committee demanding the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh as it existed a day before its formation in 1956.

As the president of the TRS, KCR had submitted a letter to Vinok K Duggal, the then Member Secretary of the Committee for Consultations on the situation in Andhra Pradesh, saying that the restoration of status quo ante the existed before 1st November, 1956, was the best way to divide the state.

Shabbir Ali said that the Centre took KCR's recommendations into consideration, and proposed the merger of the seven mandals of Khammam into AP.

Denying the allegations that the then Union Minister and Congress leader Jairam Ramesh was responsible for Telangana losing seven mandals, he said that KCR had been misleading the people on the issues since the beginning.

He reminded that KCR had given two bandh calls, including one while being the Chief Minister-designate, when the Centre had come out with an ordinance. However, he neither took an all-party delegation to the Centre nor made any strong representation to stall the ordinance.

The Congress leader also distributed a copy of the letter written by KCR to the Centre, and accused him of misleading the Assembly and the Council on the issue.

He said that the then Congress-led UPA government took several other representations made by the Congress leaders into consideration. If the Centre had implemented all the recommendations made by KCR, then Telangana would have lost the Bhadrachalam mandal along with famous Sri Rama temple.

The Congress leaders demanded that KCR accept his failure and stop blaming the Congress leaders for losing the seven mandals of Khammam.

They said that the Telangana Congress party was ready to support the TRS government if it waged a battle to get back the lost mandals. (INN)