[1]All-India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad clarified on Sunday that the Centre had not fixed any deadline for taking a decision on the state bifurcation issue.
He also said that he was not aware of anyone in the AICC saying anything about an imminent announcement of a Telangana state as had been claimed by Telangana Rashtra Samiti president Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Speaking exclusively to this newspaper at the Lake View Guesthouse, Mr Azad cleared the air on a number of issues dogging the state Congress.
Mr Azad said that Telangana was a difficult issue and a decision would be taken after building a consensus at both the state and the Centre. He also said that there were no plans on changing the state Congress leadership. Regarding the pending resignation of roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasada Rao, he said that the legal implications of the matter were being studied before taking a final decision.
Following are excerpts from the interview with Mr Azad:
There has been no announcement on the Telangana state issue so far in spite of the Centre stating that a decision will be taken soon …
I admit there is a delay in taking a decision, but what the media did not know was that there were consultations going on the issue. It is a very difficult issue. So far there is no consensus among the regions and parties in the state. I don’t want to say how states were formed earlier, but in the recent past, a few new states were formed based on consensus. That consensus is lacking here. Telangana leaders want a separate state, but Andhra leaders are opposing it. We have to tread cautiously on the subject.
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