No timeframe for Telangana decision: Pranab

Despite mounting pressure from Telangana Rashtra Samithi on creation of a separate state, the chairman of United Progressive Alliance sub-committee on the issue, Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said no time frame could be set up for taking a decision on the subject.

"The sub-committee will finalise its report after receiving the response from all political parties on the statehood demand. All parties except Bharatiya Janata Party have submitted their views," Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of the 32nd National Management Convention in Hyderabad.

Seeking to hold the saffron party responsible for the delay, he said, "We are still awaiting response from BJP because it is a big party and its views do matter. We have already sent a reminder to them seeking their response."

TRS to decide to continue with UPA

Rejecting charges that Congress was deliberately delaying the process, he said the sub-committee had already held three rounds of meeting and was in the process of ascertaining the views of all political parties.

Asserting that neither the threats from TRS nor the changing political equations could influence the decision of the sub-committee, Mukherjee said creation of a new state involved several constitutional and legal procedures which needed to be examined carefully.

Mukherjee's comments came against the backdrop of the strident stance adopted by TRS, a partner in the UPA government at the Centre, on the statehood issue.

Pawar endorses TRS' Telangana demand

The TRS leaders had recently threatened to review its continuation in the government in the event of continued delay in commencing the process for formation of Telangana state.

Declining to spell out his personal opinion on the demand for Telangana statehood, the senior Congress leader said, "Our jobs is to consider the views of all political parties and make recommendations to the government."

He, however, said the Congress Working Committee had, in 2001, passed a resolution favouring constitution of the second States Re-organisation Commission to go into the demand for smaller states.

"But, the then National Democratic Alliance government had rejected the proposal," Mukherjee said adding that the demand for small states was not confined to Telangana alone but was there in other states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

The three-member UPA sub-committee was formed in November 2004 to look into the demand for Telangana.