PM remark on Telangana is good news, says KCR

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TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao said that the people of Telangana would welcome as good news Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent assurance of a separate Telangana state. “The PM suggested that “peace and calm” be maintained in the separate Telangana movement and if the situation in AP reaches normalcy, the process of carving out a separate Telangana state will begin immediately after the election of a Vice-President for India,” Mr Rao said. He was therefore maintaining a low profile in the recent past, the TRS chief said.

Mr Rao was addressing a public gathering here on Sunday after unveiling the statue of Telangana ideologist K. Jayashankar. The programme was organised by the Telangana Jagruthi, led by his daughter K. Kavitha. Mr Rao made it clear that there was no alternative to achieving separate statehood for Telangana. “If we discontinue the separate statehood movement, Seem-andhra leaders would suppress us by all means,” he said. “Let us hope, the elders of Delhi stick to their word on the Telangana issue, or we will intensify the movement,” Mr Rao said. He reiterated that the separate statehood movement was destabilised in 1969 and gathered momentum over the last 12 years, reaching a peak.

The TRS chief said that achieving separate statehood was akin to paying homage to the Prof Jayas-hankar, the departed ideologist. He lauded the efforts of the Telangana Jagruthi activists for planting saplings, suggesting that by his next birth anniversary they should plant 1 lakh saplings in Nizamabad. He was all praise also for the people of Nizamabad who had shown immense commitment to the separate statehood movement and elected BJP candidate Y. Lakshminarayana as MLA.

Responding to former Naxalites’ plea, the TRS chief said that the rule of migratory (from Andhra) leaders has affected the livelihood of Telangana people and frustrated youth were embracing extremism. “Former Naxalites would be able to lead a respectful life after the carving out of a separate Telangana state,” he said.