Congress has 'betrayed' people of Telangana: Venkaiah

Hyderabad, Jan 11 (UNI) Senior BJP leader and party Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu today alleged that the Congress had once again ''betrayed'' the people of Telangana with their reported move to constitute the second States' Reorganisation Commission (SRC) on separate Telangana.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the Congress had earlier ''betrayed'' the people of Telangana in 1969 and 1972 and did not ''honour their sentiments''.

He said the Congress, which came to power in the state promising to form separate Telangana state in 2004, had failed to fulfil its promise.

He said though all the parties except the CPI(M) had agreed for a separate Telangana state, the Congress was dragging its feet in this regard.

The move to constitute the SRC was only aimed at delaying the process, he alleged.

Mr Naidu said the first SRC, which was constituted in 1953, had given its report in 1955 after considering 1.5 lakh representations.

''If the UPA Government goes ahead with its move, how much time will the second SRC take to submit its report,'' he asked.

He said several new states were formed in the country without setting up the SRC, citing the example of the NDA Government, which had formed Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal as per the wishes of the people of the region. The Congress did not talk about the SRC during that time, he added.

He sought to know whether the proposed SRC was only confined to Telangana and Vidarbha or for other states also.

Affirming the BJP's commitment for the formation of Telangana and smaller states, he urged the Centre to introduce a Bill in Parliament without the SRC to form Telangana.

He said the BJP would support the Bill along with other parties and there was no guarantee that the government would accept the recommendations of the Commission. ''It is only delaying tactics of the Congress and it is not committed for separate Telangana,'' the senior BJP leader alleged.

State BJP President Bandaru Dattatreya and General Secretary K Laxman were also present.

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