Srikrishna to head five-member panel on Telangana

New  Delhi, Feb 03: In a  bid to appease the leaders of all the three regions – Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra – the Union Government constituted a five-member panel headed by Justice B.N Srikrishna, retired Judge of Supreme Court of India on Wedensday.According to Union Home Ministry sources, the Committee will hold wide-ranging consultations with all sections of people and political parties and groups in Andhra Pradesh before submitting its report to the Centre in 30 days.

The other members of the Committee are Prof Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi; Dr Abusaleh Sharif, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi; Dr (Ms) Ravinder Kaur, Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Delhi and Vinod K Duggal, former Home Secretary, who will also function as its Member Secretary.The terms and references are being drafted and will be finalised in consultation with the Chairman of the Committee and announced shortly, the Home Ministry sources added.

KT Rama Rao, Telangana Rashtra Samiti  MLA and party president K Chandrashekhar Rao's son,  reacting to the constitution of the panel said here that ``the party would wait for the terms of reference of the committee before giving its views on it.’’"We are waiting for the terms of reference of the committee to know if it is in furtherance of the Dec 9 statement made by Home Minister P Chidambaram. (If it is so), then we can look forward to it. If it is a step back to explore whether to give Telanagana or not then we will not be happy with it. We are demanding a committee for the formation of Telangana within a timeframe," added TRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao's son.