As if the existing headache over the options suggested by the Justice Srikrishna Committee on the contentious Telangana issue is not enough, Delhi-based sensational weekly Tehelka has come out with seventh option, saying that it is under the consideration of the Centre.
The key aspects of the seventh option are:
• Chief Ministership or Deputy Chief Ministership to a politician who has been elected from the Telangana region
• Key ministerial posts for representatives elected from Telangana
• Establishment of a statutory and empowered Telangana Regional Committee with adequate transfer of funds, functions, and functionaries
• Appointing an MLA as chairman of the TRC with the rank and status of a Cabinet minister
• Separate secretariat for the council headed by an officer of the level of additional chief secretary
• Formation of an apex committee headed by the governor to settle legislative disputes, if any, between the TRC and the AP government
• Constitutional amendment as early as March to form the TRC, provided there is consensus on the seventh option
• Freedom to the council and the people of Telangana to review the TRC’s relevance after 15 months
• Freedom to the people of Telangana to develop the region on the lines of coastal Andhra, by letting the TRC continue
• Freedom to the council and the people of Telangana to bifurcate into the states of Telangana and Seemandhra, should they be unhappy with the TRC’s work
• Assurance from the Congress leadership to make Hyderabad the capital of a Telangana state and develop a new capital for Seemandhra, in such an eventuality.
However, there is nothing new in the Seventh Option, as most of the points fall within the purview of the sixth option itself. The formation of TRC is nothing but a constitutional safeguard suggested in the sixth option; so are the suggestions like Deputy CM post for Telangana. The only new thing is to form a separate secretariat for Telangana.
Like the sixth option, this so-called “seventh option” also will not be acceptable to both the regions, as Seemandhra will oppose tooth and nail the attempt to give dominance to Telangana leaders. And the Telangana leaders will not accept anything less than separate state, as all these measures have already been tried and failed.
