Has the UPA leadership hit a hurdle in the path to carve out Telangana state?
Are there intractable issues involved in the bifurcation? These questions are being raised in political circles as the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Wednesday said that the report of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on Telangana will not be ready for submission to the Union Cabinet meeting on Thursday.
"We are taking a very important decision on a complex issue. It will take some time," Shinde said in Delhi.
According to the original schedule, the GoM, constituted by the UPA government to work out modalities for division of Andhra Pradesh, was supposed to submit its report to the Union Cabinet on November 21. It is virtually a race against time as the draft Telangana bill needs to be sent to the President Pranab Mukherjee who will in turn refer to the Assembly for its opinion. The entire process should be over by middle of next month so that the government can introduce the bill in both Houses of the Parliament before the winter session concludes.
Shinde said there would be a few more meetings of the GoM before finalizing the report.
It seems fresh problems have cropped up regarding the Article 371 D, a state-specific provision in the constitution designed to provide employment opportunities through zonal system.
Several experts, including the Attorney General Vahanavati, have argued that the article has be amended with the two-third majority in the Parliament before the bill on creation of Telangana state can be introduced.
It remains to be seen how the UPA government will overcome this hurdle and meet the deadline on Telangana state formation.
