Telangana: the 29th state of India
At the stroke of midnight on Monday, India got its 29th state, with Telangana coming into existence officially. Telangana Rashtriya Samithi (TRS) chief, K Chandrasekhar Rao was sworn in as Chief Minister of Telangana in Hyderabad along with nine other cabinet ministers, two of whom were KT Rama Rao and T Harish Rao, son and nephew of Rao.
57 years ago, the Telugu speaking region of Hyderabad, Telangana was merged with Andhra state on 1 November, 1956 to form Andhra Pradesh, despite the State’s Reorganization committee’s advice against the merger in 1953.
K Chandrasekhar Rao, the first CM of the new state Telangana
In the late 60s, a massive revolt called the Jai Telangana Movement was launched by the people of Telangana demanding the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into Telangana and Andhra again. For a three decade time period between 1969 and 2000 Andhra Pradesh has seen many revolts and riots both for and against Telangana that resulted in bloodshed. The Jai Andhra movement is one such anti-Telangana movement which was launched to nullify the safeguards that were promised to Telangana people by the Indira Gandhi led government in the year 1969.
It was during the year 2001 that K Chandrasekhar Rao walked out of Telugu Desam Party to form Telangana Rashtriya Samithi with the cause of getting a separate Telangana state as his chief objective. After many struggles, debates and demonstrations, sometimes for Telangana and sometimes against it, on July 30 Congress announced the formation of Telangana as a separate state and the Telanga Bill was passed on February 18, 2014.
The contention of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into two states has been a major cause of violence in former unified state of Andhra Pradesh for close to 60 years now. According to reports, in 2010 73 students had committed suicide and 1812 more had attempted the same.
The swearing in ceremony of TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao was held in Hyderabad, which will serve as a joint capital for both Telangana and Andhra for 10 years after which it will go to Telangana.
“People of Telangana are looking forward to a progressive and development-oriented state. We will work in that direction and ensure a transparent administration,” the Chief Minister said in his address at Secunderabad.
“In the next five years, the TRS government will spend Rs. 1 lakh crores for the welfare on SCs, STs, Backward Classes and minorities. Of this, Rs. 50,000 crores will be spent on SC welfare alone,” he announced.
President’s rule has been revoked from Telangana, which was imposed in the former unified state of Andhra Pradesh following the resignation of N Niran Kumar Reddy from the post of CM. The newly formed state of Andhra is still under central rule until Chandra Babu Naidu is sworn in as Chief Minister on 8 June, 2014.
Photos Courtesy: Internet
Krishnaveni Ilanthirayan
2nd M.A. Mass Communication
