Chhattisgarh CM bats for seperate Telangana state

Hyderabad, Feb 13: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has promised to lend his support for the demand of a separate Telangana state if Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came back to power in the 2014 general elections.

Criticizing the centre for delaying the issue, Singh asserted that he can understand the pain faced by the people during the turmoil in Andhra Pradesh.

While addressing a mass gathering, Singh said, "In 1997, the BJP had decided that a separate state must be carved and the issue of Telangana was also discussed. You all have endured so much suffering, you have faced so many hardships and the government in Delhi is forming different committees and commissions."

"In the history of India, there has been not been the formation of so many committees and commissions for the creation of a state," Singh said.

Adding to that, he said that BJP was committed in the development of the smaller states.

"I want to say this today because Chhattisgarh was created by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 200, three states were carved out, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chhattisgarh. I have completed eight years as the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh and I am stepping into the ninth year.

"But the people who want to prove that small states cannot be successful, I want to tell Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh who are in Delhi that Chhattisgarh is an example of how small states can prove to be successful and then you can talk about Telangana," said Singh.

"The ministers in Delhi do not have the time, the money that went in the 2G scam, half of the people are in jail and half of them are in bail and others are worried about how they are going to be punished. Tihar jail has lack of space now.

"The people responsible in the Commonwealth Games scam have been unable to come out of jail, now the situation is such that the Tihar jail is proving to be small because most of the ministers are imprisoned," he added.

OneIndia News