New Telangana panel irks students body

The Centre may have set up a five-member committee on Telangana, but students who have been most vocal in their demand for a state feel the panel should only deal with select issues and not about the formation of the state.

Dr Prithviraj, the chief of the Students Telangana Joint Action Committee, told rediff.com that the basic idea of the committee should be to deal with issues pertaining to distribution of water and fixing the border.

"If the committee interferes with the formation of the state, then we will oppose it all out. There is no need for a committee to be formed for this purpose," says Prithviraj.

"Let me point out that there is a big difference between a committee and a commission. The Fazal Ali Commission has long back said that Telangana should be formed and in such a circumstance there is no need for another committee to be formed to decide on the same issue. Implement the recommendations of the Fazal Ali commission and that would be enough. Moreover, I think there is no need to further debate this issue since the home minister's statement made it clear that a roadmap would be drawn out to form the state. What sort of a home minister is he if he goes back on his word. We have trusted what he said and expect him to keep up his word," he added.