Sheena Roy to SKC

AbdulMuqtadir Syed / Letters To SKC / 10 Comments

To Mr. Duggal,

Member Secretary, Room # 248
Vignan Bhavan Annexe,
Moulana Azad Road,
New Delhi

Dear Sir,

I am addressing this letter to my opinion and unequivocal support to the bifurcation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh State.

There are plenty of reasons why we need to separate ourselves from the United Andhra Pradesh.

Firstly, I believe that there is “denial of Fair-Share” in the ‘high offices’ of the legislature to the M.L.As and M.L.Cs from Telangana who are 119 out of 294 in the Assembly and 40 MLCs out of 90 in the Council. In this connection you may consider the following ‘facts and instances’ to realize how and in what manner the Telangana legislators were ‘denied’ their “Fair-Share” in respect of ‘high offices’ like Speaker of the Assembly and Chairman of the Council and other high offices. The biggest omission is for the post of Chief Minister. Only four CMs have been at the helm since the inception of the state, and none of them lasted a full term.

2. In the above context it may be recalled that it is more than 50 years, since Telangana was ‘merged’ with Andhra state in 1956. It was a conditional merger under an ‘Agreement’. As you are well aware that at the time of ‘merger’ Telangana people were given certain ‘guarantees’ by Andhra Rulers that they will get ‘Fair-Share’ in all fields on the “basis of their population” which is now 42% in the state population. In the circumstances you may have to know the ‘present position’ in the holding of ‘high offices’ in different branches of the Government such as Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council and other constitutional authorities or statutory institutions. On this ‘vital issue’ you are requested to consider the unimaginable bias and ‘discrimination’ shown to Telangana Legislators in holding these ‘high offices’ in the Legislature as seen from the data given below:

S.no Office Office holder District
1 Speaker Sri. N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Chittoor
2 Deputy Speaker Sri. N. Manohar Guntur
3 Chairman of Legislative Council Dr. A. Chakrapani Kurnool
4 Dy. Chairman of the Council Sri. Mohd Jani Guntur
5 Minister for Legislative Affairs Sri. K. Roshaiah Guntur
Holders of ‘high offices’ in the Legislature:

3. It is evident that all the ’5 offices’ are held by Hon’ble Members hailing from Andhra region and NONE from Telangana which has 10 districts and 42% of the state population. And what is more astonishing is that legislators of Rayalaseema with 17.6% population of the state are holding the most coveted posts like Speaker of the Assembly and Chairman of the Council. This is something unimaginable under any democratic government and in particular in the light of the “terms and conditions of merger” of Telangana with Andhra state. In this context you may also consider the ‘basic principles’ enshrined in our constitution on the Form and structure of the Government. As you know India adopted ‘Democratic Form of Government’ under the constitution with ‘equality of opportunity’ to all its people. And on this basic issue the Supreme Court also defined the Democratic Government in the following terms:

The Democratic Government means and includes
“a Government of the PEOPLE, by the PEOPLE and
for the PEOPLE”.

In the light of the above observations YOU have to seriously consider as to how and why the Legislators of Telangana, who represent 4 crores people of Telangana, were ‘ignored’ when selections for the above high offices were made by the Ruling Party. It is indeed a very sensitive issue which involves self-respect or ‘Atma-Gauravam’ of Telangana people. In other words ‘ignoring’ the T-Legislators amounts to ‘violating’ the ‘democratic rights’ of the 4 crore people of Telangana. It is for these reasons that Telangana people have come to the conclusion that Telangana has become a ‘COLONY’ of Andhras who ‘dominate’ in all branches of Government only to exploit the people of Telangana for their self-aggrandizement. In the circumstances they are of the ‘firm opinion’ that the only ‘remedy’ for all these ills lies in “bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh”.

4. Apart from the above you may also look at the following posts in the Legislature, Government and High Court which are connected with the functioning of the Legislature.
S.no Office Office holder District
1 Spl. Secretary, A.P. Legislature G. Gopal Krishna Nellore
2 Legal Advisor to Legislative Assembly Jandyala Ravishanker Krishna
3 Law Secretary,
(Legal Affairs) Suri Appa Rao Vishakhapatnam
4 Secretary, Legislative Affairs & Justice R. Ramchandra Reddy Kadapa
5 Advocate General D.V. Seetharam Murthy West Godavari

Surprisingly all these posts in the Legislature, Law Department and High Court are “monopolized and occupied” by persons from Andhra region without exception. In other words eligible Telangana personnel are denied their FAIR SHARE in the above posts also under one pretext or other creating serious resentment in the minds of aroused people of Telangana. For obvious reasons by awarding the above posts to Andhra region, the legislators of the Telangana were at a disadvantage in pursuing their functions inside and outside the Legislative Forums. This is also borne out from the official records of the legislature with respect to Telangana issues.

5. Advocate General & Public Prosecutors:

A further instance of ‘bias’ and discrimination shown to Telangana people is the appointment of Advocates General and Public Prosecutors. As you must be aware that Advocate General is a ‘Constitutional Authority’ who is appointed by the Governor under Article-165 of the Constitution of India. He is the Chief Legal Advisor to the State Government and he enjoys a high status in the hierarchy of the Government.

a) In the above context it may be stated that “16 Advocates General” were appointed by the Government in the past 54 years. And out them 8 are from Rayalaseema (4 districts) and the remaining 8 are from CIRCARS (9 districts) and NONE from 10 districts of Telangana. Among Andhra districts Chittoor district alone has the ‘distinction’ of contributing as many as 6 A.Gs amongst 16 A.Gs appointed so far.

b) As regards integrity, competence and performance of many of these A.Gs in the past the ‘comments’ made in a recent press interview by Sri. T. Anantha Babu, a former Advocate General, deserve your special attention. In this interview he has made very serious observations on the performance of some of the A.Gs in the past and also pointed out how Government lost many cases in the High Court due to ‘inept handling of these cases’.

c) In the matter of appointment of A.G. the claims of competent legal luminaries from Telangana for this high office had not received the attention they really deserved. Hence the Government is answerable to the people of Telangana for showing a “blatant regional bias” in the appointment of A.Gs all these years.

d) Public Prosecutors: Similar is the situation with regard to the appointment of Public Prosecutors in the High Court. Here again in the past 54 years all the P.Ps hailed from Andhra region and NONE from Telangana. This is another classic instance of regional bias and nepotism shown by the Andhra Rulers. All these ‘unimaginable instances’ had contributed to the ‘erosion of confidence’ of Telangana people in the Government as they strongly feel that Telangana has become a ‘COLONY’ of Andhra Rulers where people of Telangana are treated as 2nd Class Citizens in their own ‘cherished land’. In this context you may kindly recall the observations of Sri. A. Kaleshwar Rao, an eminent Andhra leader and the 1st Speaker of Andhra Pradesh which are cited below:

“Tamils have greater influence in the Madras Legislature, in the Government and in the High Court. In the Government of Madras run by the TAMILS, the individuality and self-respect of Andhras has decreased. That is a Tamilian State and not of Andhras. Under the Madras Government, the Tamils are enjoying all the benefits whereas Andhras are backward in respect of employment, education and economic development. Industries and power supply in ANDHRA area”.

The above observations of the First Speaker of A.P. Assembly are applicable with “greater force” to Telangana people who suffered innumerable injustices under the ‘oppressive rule’ of Andhra leaders and Andhra bureaucracy.

We have many grievances, the biggest being Injustices in Jobs in the government, distribution of funds to our districts, inequalities in irrigation projects, monopolization of the civil projects and mining by the Andhra and Seema people.

You are therefore requested to consider the above issues in a dispassionate manner for separating the Telangana region from Andhra Pradesh.

Sincerely,

Sheena Roy

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