New Delhi/Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh is set to be split into two with the union cabinet Thursday approving the draft bill for carving out Telangana as the 29th state of India.
About 57 years after it was merged with Andhra to form Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, which comprises 10 districts including Hyderabad, will come into existence as a separate state.
Dropping the proposal of Rayala-Telangana, the cabinet stuck to the earlier decision of Telangana state with 10 districts.
Also rejecting the demand of leaders of Seemandhra (combined Rayalseema and coastal Andhra regions) for making Hyderabad a union territory, it stuck to the earlier decision that the city would be a common capital for 10 years.
The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill will be sent to President Pranab Mukherjee Friday or Saturday with a request to make a reference to the state’s legislature under Constitution’s Article 3, union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters after the three-hour long cabinet meet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He said the president would send the draft bill to the assembly with a stipulated time to consider it.
After the assembly sends back the bill to the president, it would come to the government and brought before the cabinet again and then a final bill tabled in parliament.
“We don’t know. The president will give time to the state legislature,” said Shinde when asked if the bill would come up during parliament’s winter session which began Thursday. “We want the bill in the winter session” said Shinde. The winter session which began Thursday. (IANS)