New Delhi: Telangana, one of the three regions of Andhra Pradesh, will be carved out as India’s 29th state; the industrial hub of Hyderabad will be a common capital for the next 10 years, the Congress said today.

The decision to create a Telangana state, a process that’s likely to take six months, was cleared this evening first by the parties in the ruling coalition and then by the Congress’s powerful Working Committee.

While the Centre will seek the Andhra Pradesh Assembly’s comments and feedback, its suggestions are not binding on the Centre, stressed Congress leader Digvijaya Singh. A bill that creates the new state will have to be passed by Parliament.

The decision for a separate Telangana state was taken by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday. Before and after that, the party had prepped carefully to blunt extreme protests and resignations of its members who belong to the regions of Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra, collectively referred to as Seemandhra.

“We are drinking poison for the sake of the Congress,” said Rudraraju Padma Raju, the chief whip of the Congress in Andhra Pradesh. But like others, he conceded that resigning from the state legislature will only benefit the opposition.

Of Andhra Pradesh’s 42 parliamentary seats, almost half lie in Telangana; by acquiescing to popular sentiment, the Congress is hoping for a windfall in the national elections, now just month away.

Over the next few months, the Centre will ensure that the concerns of the residents of Telangana and Seemandhra are addressed and resolved within “a specified time frame”. The focus will be on how to distribute resources like water, electricity and revenue between the old and new states.

Telangana, the largest of the three regions in Andhra Pradesh, contributes more than 60 per cent to the state’s revenue and is home to 40 per cent of its population. In comparison, Coastal Andhra accounts for 14 per cent of the state’s earnings; Rayalaseema brings in just four per cent.

New state After 4 Months

New Delhi: The government has given its nod to the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh becoming India’s 29th state.  

The government’s timeline for the creation of the new state involves an elaborate process, which has been allotted a 122 days, or at least four months:

• The decision to carve out Telangana will be referred to the Andhra Pradesh legislature for a resolution.
• The Union Home Ministry will then refer the proposal to the cabinet, which will appoint a group of ministers to address concerns of the three regions – Telangana, Seemandhra and Rayalaseema – on sharing water, land, electricity and revenue.
• The ministerial panel will then ask the Law Ministry to draft legislation, which will be sent to the Andhra Pradesh assembly and the Home Ministry for comments.
• The Bill cleared by the Cabinet will go to the President, who will forward it to Parliament.
• Both Houses of Parliament will have to then pass legislation by simple majority for the creation of a separate state. After the President’s assent to the Bill, Telangana will come into being.
• The five-decade struggle for a Telangana state was forced onto the contemporary national agenda in 2009 by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi or TRS, headed by K Chandrasekhara Rao. He fasted for 10 days, triggering huge rallies of support.
• In response, in December 2009, in a surprise announcement, the Centre said it was sanctioning statehood. But within days, the government backtracked as violent protests erupted in the other two regions-Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema.