'Make Hyderabad a UT; not a part of Telangana'

Andhra Pradesh Minister for Backward Classes Welfare M Mukesh Goud has written a letter to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi saying 'the concerns of various sections of people living in Hyderabad need to be looked into' while taking a decision on the Telangana state demand.

"There is a clamour among the people of Hyderabad, cutting across caste, religion, language and caste barriers, to get Union Territory status for their city, so as to preserve its cosmopolitan character and to accelerate its growth as an IT hub, bio-tech, pharma and other emerging technologies," Goud wrote in his letter.

"The predominant sections of Hyderabadis favour conferring Union Territory status on Hyderabad, rather than making it part of Telangana," the minister said in the letter.

Mukesh, who hails from Hyderabad, has raised the demand for granting UT status for Hyderabad along with Health Minister Danam Nagender and seven MLAs hailing from the city too were signatories to the letter.

Mukesh pointed out in his letter that Hyderabad has witnessed unprecedented growth and emerged as the fifth largest city in the country after it was made Greater Hyderabad. It has acquired a cosmopolitan character with the influx of lakhs of people from other parts of Andhra Pradesh and even from the country, he said.

"The demographic profile of the city has changed tremendously over the years and today the native inhabitants constitute only a modest proportion of the total population of about one crore," he stated.

"Hyderabad is home to a large number of Central Public Sector Undertakings, scientific research institutes like the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, the Indian Institute of Chemical Techmology, defence establishments like Defence Research and Development Organisation, National Space Research Organisation, Nuclear Fuel Complex, many national and international agricultural research stations and major academic institutes," the minister said in the letter.

"The twin cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad also have a sizeable chunk of minorities and these sections entertain serious apprehensions about their future if Greater Hyderabad is made part of separate Telangana state," the minister said.

Citing the results of the general elections this year in which the Telangana Rashtra Samiti was routed and the Telugu Desam Party, which allied with it, lost badly, Mukesh noted that even the voting pattern in the recent elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation clearly reinforced the concerns of minorities and non-local people over the future status of Hyderabad.

"All the sections have apprehensions about their future if a separate Telangana state is formed with Hyderabad as its nerve centre. Their concerns need to be looked into," Mukesh said.

Meanwhile, 25 Congress MLAs, headed by former minister K Jana Reddy and R Damodar Reddy have sent a separate letter to Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday asking her to take an immediate decision on creation of Telangana state in deference to the aspirations of the people.