Late night cabinet note names Hyderabad as Telangana capital

A cabinet note on the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh has proposed that Hyderabad be named the capital of Telangana, a report on CNN-IBN said. The channel, quoting sources, said that the note had further proposed that Hyderabad would serve as a joint capital for both Telangana and Seemandhra for a period of ten years. [caption id=“attachment_1149499” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Congress leaders protesting the formation of Telangana: Reuters[/caption] The cabinet is due to take the matter up for discussion this evening. Reacting to the report, TRS leader Keshav Rao said that while he had no objection to the idea of a joint capital for a limited period of time, there was no question of ‘sharing power’ with Andhra. He said, “Hyderabad will be the capital. And we will give Andhra facility to operate from Hyderabad if they so want for another 10 years. That is alright. But if they think of another place like Punjab or Chandigarh or Delhi where law and order will be in the hands of the Governor, revenues will be shared and the education will be kept in the hands of Governor, this is not possible.” KT Rama Rao, also of the TRS welcomed the note, and added that it was imperative that the administrative control of Hyderabad remained with Telangana. “Administratively Hyderabad has to be under the control of Telangana. We insist that as long as it is a common capital, Telangana should have complete control, unlike in Delhi where the police is under MHA control. We don’t want such a situation in Hyderabad. We want the government to stick to the promise it made”. Meanwhile Congress leader Lagadapati Rajagopal, who is against the bifurcation said that he did not think the cabinet would take a decision in this regard, because it has been pointed out to senior leaders that making such a decision would be against the interests of a majority of the people in the state. He added that there was no possibility of a decision being announced until a fact finding committee headed by defence minister AK Antony visited the state first. The Congress Working Committee on July 30 had passed a resolution requesting the Centre ’to take steps in accordance with the Constitution to form a separate state of Telangana within a definite timeframe’. It’s been two months since the government announced the decision to grant statehood to Telangana, despite Seemandhra and Rayalaseema regions remaining virtually shut-down for nearly two months.