TSS to observe Nov. 1 as 'protest day'

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, OCT. 14. The Telangana Sadhana Samithi (TSS) has decided to observe November 1, AP Formation Day, as `protest day' by asking all its supporters to wear black badges.

At a meeting of its steering committee and district conveners held here on Saturday, the TSS also resolved to unfurl `Telangana flags' in all district, mandal and panchayat headquarters on November 1 as a symbolic gesture to herald the formation of a separate State.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, the TSS president, Mr. A. Narendra, said rallies would be taken out from all the Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad to the Telangana Martyrs' Memorial opposite the Assembly where the participants would take a pledge to fight for a separate Telangana.

The TSS chief challenged the stand taken by the Chief Minister, Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu, that progress and prosperity was possible only under an integrated Telugu-speaking State. He said this argument carried no weight considering that there was scant development in Northern States which were bound by a common language, Hindi.

Asserting that a separate State of Telangana would be viable because of its abundant water resources and availability of coal, he said there were 18 States in India which were smaller in size than the Telangana region. Besides, the region's population was nearly three crore, the same as the number of people residing in Andhra Pradesh at the time of its formation in 1956.

Mr. Narendra sought to make a distinction between the political and public mood during the separate Telangana agitation in 1969 when a substantial chunk of people favoured an integrated State and now. Today, all political parties, including the Left, had diluted their earlier stand on integration and were unanimous in their view that Telangana was a backward region and favoured a financial package for its development. This could be interpreted as a sign of their indirect support for a separate State, he claimed.

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Section  : Southern States
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