Telangana bill may be tabled before Cabinet next week: Shinde

New Delhi: The report of the Group of Ministers (GoM), set up to look into the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, and the draft Telangana Bill is likely to be tabled before Union Cabinet next week with Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde saying that a few loose ends are yet to be plugged. After a series of meetings with various stake holders, the GoM is fine tuning the report and the draft Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill with Shinde, Union Ministers P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh today closeting for an hour long meeting. [caption id=“attachment_1256053” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sushilkumar Shinde. PTI[/caption] Shinde and Ramesh again huddled together with Home Secretary Anil Goswami and other senior Home Ministry officials looking into various aspects of the report and the draft Bill which are likely to be submitted to the Cabinet on December four, government sources said. “There are certain loose ends which have to be plugged. We are trying to complete the process as soon as possible… may be by next week,” Shinde told reporters. Shinde had said the ministerial panel was trying to find ways to not to hurt any region of the state while creating Telangana. The GoM had held a series of meetings with leaders of eight political parties, Union ministers from Andhra Pradesh and Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and officials in the past one month and they gave their opinion on distribution of assets and other issues between the new state and the residuary state of Andhra Pradesh. Shinde had already said that the Telangana Bill would be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament. Sources said following instructions from the Congress high command, the GoM has speeded up the whole process. Once the Cabinet clears the proposal, it will go to the President who in turn will refer it to Andhra Pradesh Assembly for approval. However, the Assembly resolution is not binding under the Constitution. The Union Cabinet then can consider the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill and with Union Cabinet’s approval, it will send it to the President before being tabled in Parliament. The Winter Session of Parliament commences on December 5 and will conclude on December 20. PTI