Date:15/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/15/stories/2004071505050400.htm

Andhra Pradesh

TDP rubbishes KCR's claims

HYDERABAD, JULY 14. The Telugu Desam Party has accused the Telangana Rashtra Samiti president, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, of misleading people by his contention that a separate Telangana state can be carved out by the Central Government without any reference to the Andhra Pradesh Government or the Assembly.

His statement that the Telangana issue was beyond the purview of the AP Government and that it now lay squarely in the Centre's domain was a total distortion of facts and misinterpretation of the Constitutional provisions. "He should immediately resign as Union Minister if he is ignorant of the statutory position," the TDP MLA, N. Janardhan Reddy, said here Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference along with two other legislators, K. Kala Venkata Rao, and K. Jogulu, he said the proviso to Article 3 of the Constitution clearly laid down that any Bill which affected the area, boundaries or name of any State had to be referred by the President to the Legislature of the State for expressing its views.