Kicking off its consultation process over two months after it was constituted, the Justice B N Srikrishna Committee on Telangana on Friday heard a delegation led by Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K Chandrasekhar Rao who strongly batted for a separate Telangana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh.
Addressing the media after meeting the committee, TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao said Justice Srikrishna committee was impressed with the party's argument.
They were 'aghast' when we explained to them how much the Telangana people were exploited by the outsiders, he said.
Rao, who is spearheading the agitation for a separate Telangana State, TRS MP Vijayashanti and party ideologue C Jaishankar and others were given a patient hearing by the committee for over four hours in two sessions.
"We are victims of broken promises and breach of trust. We are not getting due share of fruits of development. Our resources are being deployed in some other area. In polity also, we are not getting what we are supposed to get. So we stressed the need for a Telangana," he said.
The TRS chief said the merger of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad with Andhra Pradesh in 1953 was "neither unconditional nor eternal."
"Even the State Reorganisation Committee then had advised against the merger of the two provinces. Even the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was opposed to it," he said.
"We heard to the delegation for over four hours and we discussed about their reports which run into over 600 pages. They explained their position and their views on the demand," Srikrishna told reporters after the meeting.
The TRS had earlier submitted four voluminous reports to the committee supporting their demand for a separate state.
Srikrishna said the panel will hold another round of consultations with the TRS delegation, if necessary, in the next couple of months.
The Srikrishna Committee will travel to Hyderabad on April 22 and 23 during which it would hear views from some other political parties on the issue.Additional Inputs: PTI
