By IANS,
New Delhi: Two Congress legislators from Andhra Pradesh, who had submitted their resignations to the state assembly speaker over the Telangana issue, met senior party leader M. Veerappa Moily here Tuesday evening to demand a change in the terms of reference of the Srikrishna Committee.
The legislators – R. Damodar Reddy and C. Mutyam Reddy – were called by Moily, who is Congress in charge of Andhra Pradesh, after they sent their resignations Sunday to Assembly Speaker N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, protesting the terms of reference of Srikrishna panel formed to look into the statehood demand.
Congress sources said the legislators demanded that the time-frame of the committee be reduced to four months and that its terms of reference reflect the desire to form Telangana state.
The Congress legislators were accompanied by Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) legislator A. Maheshwar Reddy.
The two were among 15 legislators who had submitted their resignations after the all-party joint action committee (JAC) asked legislators from Telangana region to quit to pressurise the government to take immediate steps towards the formation of a separate state.
Congress sources said the party wants the two legislators to withdraw their resignations as it disagrees with the JAC’s stance of pressing the legislators to quit.
JAC leaders said the panel’s mandate to examine the demands for separate Telangana as well as the one for maintaining the present status of Andhra Pradesh nullified the spirit of Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s statements Dec 9 and Dec 23 for formation of the new state.
The assembly speaker Monday accepted the resignation of 12 legislators, including 10 from the Telangana Rashtra Samiti, one from the Bharatiya Janata Party and one from the Telugu Desam Party.
However, he did not announce a decision on the resignations submitted by Congress and PRP legislators.