State minister Vatti Vasantha Kumar on Thursday slammed the Centre for introducing the AP Reorganization Bill 2013 in a "hasty" manner.
Participating in the debate on Telangana Bill in the State Legislative Assembly, Vatti described the process adopted to divide Andhra Pradesh as "undemocratic and unconstitutional".
He claimed that a majority of people in the state were in favour of united Andhra Pradesh.
"However, the Centre wishes to divide the state against people's wishes," he claimed.
He said that the Srikrishna Committee had also opposed the division.
"By ignoring all recommendations, the Centre went ahead with the process of bifurcation," Vatti said.
Vatti also added that the Centre did not react to other demands for smaller states like Vidarbha but responded in a hasty manner over the Telangana issue.
"The Uttar Pradesh Assembly even passed a resolution to divide the state into 4 parts. But the Centre reacted only to the Telangana issue." Vatti observed.
Further, he said that no importance was being given to the State Legislative Assembly, although the then Home Minister P Chidambaram said in 2009 that the Assembly resolution is important to divide the state.
The minister stated that the division would badly hurt the people of Seemandhra.
"All premier institutions like BHEL, IDPL, IICT, CCMB, DRDO, BDL and others are located in Hyderabad. We have invested all our earnings for the development of Hyderabad and now we are being asked to leave. We strongly oppose the Bill," he said.
At this point minister Ponnala Lakshmaiah raised objection to the use of word "we" by Vatti Vasanth Kumar. He requested the Speaker to remove the word "we" from the records.
However, Vatti contended that "we" was not an unparliamentary word and continued his speech. (INN)
filed in:Vatti Vasantha Kumar, Telangana Bill, Andhra Pradesh Assembly, United AP Movement,