Telangana panel extends deadline

The Justice Srikrishna Committee on Telangana extended the deadline for sending representations on the statehood issue till April 10 instead of March 31 as announced earlier. The Committee headed by B N Srikrishna issued a public notice, which said representations on the contentious statehood issue will be received till April 10.

It said the deadline has been extended heeding to demands from various groups in Andhra Pradesh. The panel had on February 20 issued a public notice in newspapers inviting suggestions or views from political parties, social organisations and other stakeholders in the state by March 31.

The notice, issued by the panel's Member-Secretary Vinod K Duggal, in major newspapers said the consultation process would begin after April 10. The committee has so far received 14,000 representations from various organisations and individuals in the form of memoranda and letters.

The committee has already started studying historical, constitutional, political, legal, economic, social and cultural aspects to give its view on the statehood issue. The panel has been mandated to "examine the situation in the state of Andhra Pradesh with reference to the demand for a separate state of Telangana as well as the demand for maintaining the present status of a united Andhra Pradesh".

Other members of the committee are Ranbir Singh, vice chancellor of the National Law University, Delhi, Abu Saleh Shariff, senior research fellow in International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi, and Rabinder Kaur, professor at the department of humanities and social sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi.

The committee has been mandated to review the developments in the state since its formation and their impact on the progress and development of different regions.