Draft of Telangana Bill finalised

GoM: Will meet again today; special Cabinet likely to be convened on Nov 30.

The Group of Ministers (GoM),set up for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh Wednesday finalised the draft Bill detailing the nitty-gritty required for the creation of Telangana. It will be further fine-tuned Thursday at a meeting with Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary P K Mohanty who was present at Wednesdays GoM meeting.

After this,a special Cabinet is likely to be convened on November 30 to take up Andhra Pradesh reorganisation Bill,officials said.

Speaking to The Indian Express,Shinde said,The consultation of the GoM is still on. We have called another meeting on Thursday. The draft Bill will not be presented before the Cabinet on Thursday.

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Shinde,however,refused to give a deadline for the Bill to be brought before the Cabinet and did not elaborate on the contentious issues. He had earlier said the Bill will be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.

Sources indicated that the special provision under Article 371 D will be extended to both Telangana and Seemandhra through a constitutional amendment.

The four-hour long meeting on Wednesday was attended by Finance minister P Chidambaram,Petroleum minister Veerappa Moily and Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh among others. Shinde said various issues concerning the bifurcation and distribution of assets were discussed.

The control of Hyderabad remains contentious as pro-Telangana leaders have opposed giving it Union Territory (UT) status while Seemandhra leaders have demanded UT status on the lines of Delhi or Chandigarh . The suggestion to vest the control of law and order with Governor has also been opposed by Telangana leaders who demanded that Hyderabad remains joint capital for 10 years,as proposed by the Congress working Committee.

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