Link Telangana state to Naxalism, chief minister told me: former top cop

Government employees and supporters of united Andhra Pradesh participate in a protest against the formation of a separate Telangana state in Hyderabad on October 8.

 
Hyderabad: At a time when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has been accused of supporting protests against the state's bifurcation to create Telangana, a former top cop has alleged that Mr Reddy asked him to give an adverse report against the proposed new state.

Director General of Police Dinesh Reddy, who was replaced a week ago, has claimed that the Chief Minister had asked him to say a separate Telangana would lead to more Maoist problems.

But speaking exclusively to NDTV's Uma Sudhir, Dinesh Reddy also admitted that he had felt humiliated by the Chief Minister and that was also a reason for his outburst.

"I feel he did a turnaround and did not extend my tenure as promised because I refused to toe his line," the former police chief said.

He also alleged that the chief minister had tried to force him to transfer officers who had tried to contain the protests against Telangana.

Kiran Kumar Reddy, who is from the Seemandhra region comprising coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema, has been accused by his own party men of supporting the agitation for 'united Andhra Pradesh' that has led to a serious power crisis in Seemandhra and crippled many essential services.

Congress leaders and ministers have repeatedly petitioned the party against dividing the state. But ministers who had threatened to quit now say they will defeat the Telangana proposal in the state assembly. The Centre, however, says the assembly's decision won't change anything.

"There is anger against division, against party, and against us," Mr Reddy had told NDTV. "I was born here, I studied here, and worked in Hyderabad my whole life, but my native place is elsewhere. After 53 years, you can't say, you don't belong here." (There is anger against the party and us, says Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister)

Kiran Kumar Reddy's Congress party denied the senior police officer's allegations. "Dinesh Reddy should go to court and prove his charges, instead of making wild statements. Why did he not speak out when he was still in service?'' senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh was quoted as questioning.

Strike over plan to divide Indian state cuts electricity

The police declared a curfew in some areas after protesters blocked major highways using barricades of burning tires. 

Striking workers shut off electricity and cellphone service to a large swath of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, as hundreds of thousands of government employees protested a decision to divide the state into two parts.

Last week, India's governing coalition announced that it would create the new state, Telangana, infuriating many who will be left in the remaining "rump" of Andhra Pradesh, which stands to lose tax revenues that flow into the booming city of Hyderabad. The city is now Andhra Pradesh's capital but would eventually become Telangana's after the split. The police declared a curfew in some areas after protesters blocked major highways using barricades of burning tires.

A former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, began a hunger strike on Monday to protest the decision, telling visitors in a tent outside the state's offices in New Delhi that the government's move was politically motivated.

"If you do it for political gain, nobody will be convinced," Naidu told reporters Tuesday. "I asked them to sort out the problem, but they have created a bigger problem."

Critics say the Indian National Congress, the governing national party, took the step now because it hoped to cash in on votes in the newly formed state ahead of general elections in 2014.

India's 29th state would be in a drought-ridden inland region that has long felt marginalized by coastal elites, and its creation would come after years of passionate lobbying by its supporters, including hunger strikes and scores of suicides. Supporters say that residents of the coastal Seemandhra region, which includes Hyderabad, have monopolized state power and public resources for years, and they believe that the new state will improve their lives.

But the proposed split - which must still be approved by the state assembly and passed by both houses of Parliament - deprives the coastal region of tax revenue flowing from the cluster of industry around Hyderabad. Opponents of the plan have attacked houses and businesses belonging to regional leaders of the Congress party.

K.T. Rama Rao, a leader of a political party that supported the division, blamed regional leaders for mishandling the issue. He said many politicians who had argued passionately in favor of creating Telangana, and participated in exhaustive debates that led to the decision, were now opposing it.

"You can't change your colours seasonally," he said. "It is rank political opportunism. The people of Telangana are not willing to be fooled again and again."

Opposition to the plan comes mostly from Seemandhra, whose residents have long migrated to Hyderabad, where many services came to a halt over the weekend. Journalists in the region reported that bank machines were no longer supplying currency, and that service to tens of thousands of mobile phones went dead, exacerbating the effects of the blackout. Hospitals were operating emergency units with the help of generators, as stores of diesel dwindled, according to Indian news reports.