Telangana JAC stir called off, awaits AP CM's next move

After a massive show of strength on Sunday, the Telangana Joint Action Committee has called off its agitation, laying the emphasis on the Andhra Pradesh government to take the matter forward.

The JAC on Monday stated that they are closing the march and all protests for now and would wait for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to take further action on the matter.

The announcement to close the march came in the wee hours of Monday morning.

The JAC has said that the onus was now on both the Andhra Pradesh government and the leadership in New Delhi.

They said that if no concrete steps were taken soon, then they would launch a massive hunger strike across Telangana and also stage a series of protests.

...

Meanwhile, sources informed that a road map for the formation on Telangana is already being laid.

Ministers and senior leaders in New Delhi are already in talks to decide on the future course of action.

The road map being laid would, however, not mean that a separate state will be declared right away.

They would call for an all party meeting both at the state and national level to decide on the formation of a state.

The capital of Telangana and the rest of Andhra Pradesh has been a bone of contention.

...

A decision in this regard would have to be taken with the consensus of leaders from the rest of Andhra Pradesh. Only after these issues are sorted out will a bill be placed in Parliament, sources from New Delhi informed.

Thousands of protesters had defied prohibitory orders and joined the Telangana March in Hyderabad on Sunday. Police said some 25 police vehicles were damaged, three of them torched.

Several political leaders, including some Telangana Congress MPs, were taken into custody when they tried to stage dharna in front of the chief minister's camp office.

Telangana supporters, on their way to Necklace Road at Hussain Sagar lake, the venue of the March, clashed with security personnel. Violence was reported at Osmania University campus, Khairatabad and the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat area.

When they were stopped from passing down the Secretariat road and through some other areas where prohibitory orders were in place, the protesters pelted stones and tried to remove the barricades, which prompted the security personnel to lob tear gas shells, police said.