Will stay on as CM and fight for a united Andhra: Kiran Reddy

mangaloretoday.com

Hyderabad, Oct 7: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday said he will stay on as the chief minister and fight for a united Andhra. In an interview with CNN-IBN Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, the chief minister said giving up the post will not serve the cause.

Reddy said he has asked the Congress high command to reconsider its decision on the creation of Telangana. He said, "My post is not important. It is not permanent. But, the state is permanent. We must keep that in mind before taking a very important decision like bifurcation of a big state like Andhra Pradesh."
He also ruled out the possibility of the creation of new state before the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections early, next year.

 

The Chief Minister maintained that he has always been consistent and he is still trying to convince the party high command and the Centre not to take the final decision in a hurry. He said, "I have told the high command that a united Andhra Pradesh will help all of us. Entire state will be stronger including Telangana. Such decisions can’t be taken in a hurry."

He also said, "I have been trying to convince Congress President Sonia Gandhi and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi that the progress of the state depends on the unity of the state."

Reacting to a question on the fate of Hyderabad he said, "Nowhere in India, when a big state was divided, had the state capital gone to a smaller state. Seemandhra is much bigger than Telangana. Seemandhra people’s future is linked to Hyderabad. Hyderabad has most educational institutions, industries, IT companies, medical facilities, airport and other major infrastructure. How can the people lose all that?"

He said that basic issues like electricity, water sharing etc had to be decided amicably before the division of the state. He added that Telangana has a major power problem and it is not going to be easy for the new state to handle issues like power.

Shifting the blame on the Central government, the Chief Minister said, "The Congress high command has taken a decision. Now the Centre should handle it. It can’t take a decision in a hurry. We are all still trying our best to convince the Centre against bifurcation. Not a single concern raised by us has been addressed. They should address these issues, before going ahead with the decision of creating a new state."

He made it clear that he was not going to resign and will debate the issue in the state assembly. He said that Parliament will have to listen to the views of the state Assembly and it is a Constitutional right of the state.

Talking about the mega projects which are pending, he said, "Lot of projects are in the pipeline. We have water sharing disputes with neighbouring states. They are before the Supreme Court and Tribunals. A new state can’t be carved out without sorting out basic issues like these."

Attacking the YSR Congress party chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy and the TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, he said that both had earlier agreed to division of the state and later changed their stand.

Without taking the name of party supremo Sonia Gandhi or the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, he reiterated that he was not in support of the decision taken by them.