Left requests TRS not to relaunch agitation

New Delhi, Aug 23 (UNI) The Left parties today exhorted the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) to wait for a consensus on a separate Telangana and asked it not to relaunch its agitation as it would open the ''Pandora's Box'' of many such demands.

While the CPI maintained that such a case needed time for consensus to be reached, the CPI(M) said as many as 29 such proposals were pending with the government.

A day after quitting the Union Cabinet, TRS chief K Chandrashekhara Rao began an indefinite hunger strike near Jantar Mantra here today to press the statehood issue.

CPI leaders A B Bardhan and Shamim Faizi said it was agreed upon that the subject was to be handed over to a Committee or a Commission to find out the feasibility of a separate Telangana.

''Accordingly, the Committee chairman has solicited the opinion of various political parties but opinion was still divided,'' the CPI leaders told UNI.

Meanwhile, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury, at a press conference in Parliament, disagreed with the observation of a mediaperson that the Left's ''stubborn stand'', as alleged by the TRS, had hindered the creation of seprate Telengana.

''How can we do so? Only the Congress and the BJP have the majority in the House...,'' he said, hastening to add that his party was consistant in its postion that separate statehood should only take place on linguistic grounds.

''If demands for separate statehood in the name of backward, hilly or tribals areas keep coming, where will we stop ?'' he queried.

The CPI (M) leader also demanded that the government to come out with the prescribed uniform standards as finalised by the Joint Parliamentary Committee on March 19 this year.

''The move is necessary in view of Health Minister A Ramadoss giving a clean chit to Coca Cola,'' the CPI(M) leader added.

He said the government would have to notify the guidelines at the earliest as various states are acting differently on the issue.

''Let the issue be sorted by the Bureau of Indian Standards,'' he urged.

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