For Admissions Contact @ 9133527733

Menu

Telangana Regional Committee

In the wake of the merging of Hyderabad and Andhra State, the formation of Telangana Regional Committee is one of the important protections provided to the Telangana region.

  • Telangana Regional Committee was called “Telangana People’s Voice”.
  • There are political, financial, educational and employment related matters constituted in the Gentleman ‘s Agreement (1956) which is the basis in the formation of Andhra Pradesh State to ensure protection of the interests of Telangana, especially financial and educational aspects.
  • The people of Telangana region were against the formation of Vishalandhra ” due to imbalances between Telangana and Andhra regions.
  • Telangana Regional Committee was born out of Gentleman’s Agreement to overcome the fears from the mindsets of Telangana people, who were afraid of the dominant role of Seemandhra people and exploitation of Telangana resources by them.

Historical Background :

  • Discrimination and inequalities between regions or Kingdoms are quite common.
  • It may be noticed that worldwide, when two regions merge with regional inequalities, lesser developed regions will be given more provisions which are historically in practice.
  • In India, the provision of protections has led to the inspirational formation of Telangana Regional Committee.
  • In the future, it will be helpful to establish a good environment between the two regions.
  • Developing good relations between different sections of people are needed for the nation’s stability and integration.
  • Scotland became a part of England in 1707.
  • By this, Great Britain was formed with England, Wales and Scotland.
  • In 1921, Northern Irland also joined Great Britain, which led to the formation of the United Kingdom.
  • In order to provide certain safeguards for the development of the regions like Scotland and Northern Ireland, the British Parliament enacted a law namely “Scottish Standing Committee”.
  • The people of Scotland were satisfied with the provision of protection for their development.
  • However, a referendum was conducted to ascertain the views of the people of Scotland on September 18, 2014.
  • The public opinion of Scotland was favorable to the United Kingdom as 55.33% of people of Scotland wished to be a part of the Union.
  • By this, one can understand the significance of the protection given to Scotland by forming the committees like “Scottish Standing Committee
  • When Seemandhra region was in Madras Province, there were famines and disasters frequently in Rayalaseema region.
  • So, for the protection and development of Rayalaseema region, a Separate “Development Board” was formed in 1949 and it was named as “Seeded District Economic Development”.
  • Later, the name was changed as “Rayalaseema Development Board”.
  • The Presides of this Board was the minister, who adminístered development works of the Board.
  • The Board was abolished when Andhra State was formed as a separate State on October 1, 1953.

States Reorganisation Commission:

  • Under the leadership of Sayeed Fazal Ali, the States Reorganisation Commission was appointed by the Nehru Government in 1953, December 22, for reorganization of states in India.
  • The Commission received opinions from different regions and sections throughout India.
  • In the same situation, the then ChiefMinister of West Bengal B.C. Roy and Bihar Chief Minister S.K. Sinha proposed for merging of two states as “West Bengal -Biharjoint State ”.
  • Along with thís they have also proposed for formation of regional committees for two regions for development and equality Though their desire was not fulfilled, their proposal of the Regional Committee inspired the formation ofTelangana Regional Committee
  • In June and July, 1954, SRC visited Hyderabad.
  • In this situation most of the leaders and people preferred for a separate Hyderabad State and they opposed merging of Telangana region with the Andhra State.
  • Out of 16 Districts of Hyderabad, 5 Districts were Marathi spoken. Another 3 districts are Kannada spoken.
  • People desired for separation of Marathi and Kannada districts.
  • But they opposed the formation of Vishalandhra. The violence resulted from the”Protection of Mulki Movement”.
  • In 1952 it also depicted the authoritarian ideology of Andhra region for the formation of Vishalandhra, Leaders of Telangana who were totally against the formation of Vishalandhra were K.V. Ranga Reddy and Marri Chenna Reddy.
  • The then ChiefMinister Boorgula Rama Krishna Rao initially opposed the formation of Vishalandhra but later he supported Vishalandhra.
  • On September 30, 1955, the States Reorganisation Commission recommended separate Telangana State which consisted of ten Districts.
  • In this report, Bidar district of Karnataka was in Telangana, as the majority were Telugu speaking people.
  • The Commission analyzed the profits and losses if Vishalandhra and Telangana regions were formed.
  • In Spite of strong proposals from Andhra leaders for the formation of Vishalandhra, the Commission preferred the formation of separate Telangana.
  • The Commission also recommended that if necessary, after 1962 Assembly elections of Telangana, Vishalandhra can be formed if the 2/3rd of members of Telangana Assembly accepted.
  • The leaders of Andhra Pradesh thought that Vishalandhra formation should not slow down.
  • So, they had pressure on the Central Government and also influenced Telangana leaders, Boorgula Ramakrishna Rao to show a positive approach towards Vishalandra formation.
  • Few Congress Leaders met the then central Home Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant in February 1956.He told them about the formation of the Regional Committee.
  • After knowing about the changes happening in the Central Congress Government who were initially negative and later were positive in their approach for the formation ofAndhra Pradesh, the Telangana Congress Leaders requested for provisions of separate protections along with a regional committee.

Telangana Regional Committee:

  • The Gentleman’s Agreement took place on February 20, 1956, for the formation of Vishalandhra and to provide safeguards to Telangana.
  • It met at Hyderabad House in Delhi.
  • In that meeting, leaders from Telangana, Boorgula Ramakrishna Rao, K.V. Ranga Reddy, Marri Chenna Reddy, J.V. Narsing Rao And leaders from Andhra-Bejawada Gopal Reddy. Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Gouthu Lachchanna, and Alluri Satyanarayana Raju. Altogethera total of 8 members participated.
  • In the Gentlemen’s Agreement, 14 points were inserted out of which 9th point was proposed for the formation of Telangana Regional Council. They signed the Gentleman’s agreement on July 19, 1956.
  • The Parliament enacted the Bill namely “Note on Safeguards’ ‘ which was introduced in the Parliament for the statutory provision of the Gentlemen’s Agreement, and also for the formation of Vishalandhra.
  • The then President, Babu Rajendra Prasad, agreed and it became a law on August 315,1956.
  • The thing which has to be noticed is that the name in the Gentleman’s Agreement “Telangana Region Council” had changed as “Telangana Regional Committee” in the formation of Andhra Pradesh State Act.
  • The Indian Parliament adopted the 7th Constitutional Amendment Act (1956) through which 14 States and Union Territories were formed on the recommendations of the State Reorganisation Commission.
  • This Amendment also abolished A,B,C,D parts of regions in the basic Constitution of India.
  • This amendment Act empowered the President of India to form the Development Board in Bombay State and proposed the formation of Regional Committees in Andhra Pradesh and the Punjab.
  • In 1957, with the presidential order two Regional Committees were formed in the Punjab.
  • In 1966, this Regional Committee was abolished due to the division of the Punjab State into Punjab and Haryana.
  • Telangana Regional Committee was formed in 1958 through Presidential Order.
  • Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, the first chief minister of Andhra Pradesh did not form the executive body of Telangana Regional Committee.
  • Even though the Council got statutory provision in 1958, the members were appointed in the period of Damodaram Sanjeevaiah, the then Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh in 1960.

Committee Structure:

  • Telangana Regional Committee consisted of 20 members, and their election procedure was as follows:
  • Nine members represent the then nine districts, They are elected by the Telangana As- sembly members (MLA’s), district wise.
  • Six members are Telangana MLAs or MP’s and they should be elected by Telangana Assembly Members (MLA’s)
  • Five members will be those who are not members of legislative Assembly but they are elected by Telangana MLAs.
  • Along with them ministers belonging to Telangana were also the ex-officio members.
  • Chairman, Deputy Chairman: There will be one Chairman and one Deputy Chairman for Telangana Regional Committee. They should be elected by MLAs ofTelangana Regions (105 members)
  • The Governor can issue notification for election to the Chairman and Deputy Chairman.
  • They will lose their membership as Chairman, Deputy Chairman if they lose their MLA seat.
  • Their election will be conducted on “Open Ballot System”.
  • Regional Committee members can be removed by special majority. But no one has been removed by this method.
  • K. Achyutha Reddy of Congress party was elected as the first Chairman of Telangana Regional Committee, He defeated Raavi Narayana Reddy of CPI party by 41 votes.
  • Achyutha Reddy got 63 Votes and Raavi Narayana Reddy got only 22 votes.
  • Masuma Begum was unanimously elected as the Deputy Chairman.

Meetings:

  • Telangana Regional Committee’s meetings will be organized by the Chairman.
  • He will preside over the meetings.
  • 1/3rd members will be treated as quorum”.
  • If Quorum is not there, the Chairman will postpone the meeting.The meetings postponed are very rare due to the lack of quorum.
  • Their meetings were held in the State Legislative Assembly building.The proceedings of the meetings were kept confidential.
  • There was Question hour time in the Punjab Regional Committee’s meeting, but it was not there in the Telangana Regional Committee.
  • But whatever information was needed by the members, the Government would provide them.
  • As per Gentleman’s agreement Telangana Regional Committee has to be reviewed after 10 years.
  • Even the same was mentioned in Telangana safeguards. “Note on safeguards”, to be reviewed after 10 years.

Powers-Functions:

  • Telangana Regional Committee was expected to observe and supervise the following:
  1. Telangana Regional Committee’s permission is necessary for sale of Agricultural lands in Telangana.
  2. The sale of lands was controlled by Telangana Regional Committee
  3. To observe the powers of the General plan, Development Institutions, District Board and other institutions enacted by the State Legislature.
  4. To observe the development of Primary and Secondary Education in Telangana Area. To prepare an action plan for the development of education.
  5. It will regulate the admissions in educational institutions in Telangana.
  6. To regulate and observe the prohibition in Telangana.
  7. Cottage and small scale industries, Agriculture, Co-operative Societies, Markets, Fairs etc., were under Telangana Regional Committee.
  8. It will also supervise the job recruitment process in the Telangana region.
  9. Drafting bills of Telangana region should get the approval of Telangana Regional Committee.
  10. The non-financial Bills ofTelangana are called “Regional Bills”.They should get prior permission from the Telangana Regional Committee before introducing it in the Legislative Assembly.The Governor has the decision making power regarding whether the bill is regional or not.
  11. Few Bills will not come in the purview of Telangana Regional Committee.
  • Any rule related to Telangana region, which extended Andhra region through a bill need not be reported again to the committee.
  • At The same time all money bills will not come under the committee’s purview.

Telangana Regional Committee – Working Process :

  • The Telangana Regional Committee has the power to adopt every bill after elaborate discussions.
  • Sometimes it will form sub-committees for elaborate discussions. There are two kinds of Sub-committees.
  1. Standing Sub-committees:

These committees are formed to discuss any particular aspect. Telangana Regional Committee has formed 3 standing sub-committees they are:

  1. a) Standing Sub -committee on Local Administration, Public health.
  2. b) Standing Sub-committee on Education.
  3. c) Standing Sub-committee on development plans.
  4. Ad Hoc Sub-committees:
  • These committees are formed on special issues.
  • There is no decisive number for these committees
  • After completion of the work, the committees should be abolished.
  • In every sub-committee there are nine members.They were elected from regional committee members only.
  • Telangana Regional Committee Chairman appointed a Chairman to the sub- committee from among the members of the sub-committee.
  • The sub-committee members were collected from Regional Committee members with total consent.
  • The quorum for sub-committees meetings was four members.
  • They have the right to even call government officers by issuing a summons.
  • sub-committees have managed their responsibilities with good dedication.
  • Telangana Regional Committee unanimously accepted the proposals submitted by sub-committees.

 

Negligence regarding Regional Committee

  • As per the law “Note on safeguards” Telangana Regional Committee has been provided with elaborate powers.
  • ChiefMinisters of Seemandhra thought that if the committee worked properly, it would be dangerous, So they tried to deceive them.
  • In 1958, the Regional Committee got statutory provision through the presidential order.
  • But during the regime of Sanjeeva Reddy, the first Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh, he didn’t try to form the Executive Council.
  • Due to pressure from Telangana leaders, the ChiefMinister Damodaram Sanjeevaiah formed, Executive Council in 1960.
  • The First Chairman of the committee was K.Achyutha Reddy.
  • K.Achyutha Reddy did his duties properly, but the Andhra Leadership tried to domínate him. i.e. gave a statement through a press meet, that tried to put forward the injustice towards Telangana region to the ChiefMinister.
  • The ChiefMinister negatively responded to even the second president hayagriva chary. The tragedy was that the Andhra leaders did not respond at all.
  • In 1964, there was an acute shortage of teachers in secondary schools in the Telangana region.
  • But the Government did not take any administrative steps regarding this problem.
  • So, the Regional Committee recommended the Government to recruit teachers from the surplus funds of Telangana region.
  • The Department of Finance and Planning responded and falsely reported that there were no surplus funds available to the Telangana region, but there was a deficit.
  • In the 1961-66 period when the governor’s speech in Assembly it was stated that, there were 30.54 crores surplus funds in Telangana region.
  • From this, one can notice the ignorance of Andhra Leadership Towards reporting of Telangana benefits and the Regional Committee was kept in the dark.
  • There were differences between Government and Telangana Regional Committee with regard to Telangana regions surplus funds., Regional Committee argued and showed the surplus funds of the Revenue account of Telangana region as Telangana surplus funds.
  • But the Government argued that from the profits at the revenue account, the investment amount had to be taken off and thus surplus should be estimated.
  • The differences were going on, but the regional committee made plans for the usage ofTelangana surplus funds.

Working of Telangana Regional Committee-Review:

  • The Regional Committee played an eminent role in protecting the regional benefits in the educational sector.
  • It framed rules and regulations for admissions into Telangana schools and requested the government to implement the same.
  • The Government gave instructions to educational institutions in Telangana to implement the rules and regulations framed by the Regional Committee.
  • It has also played a very important role in the management of Public Health and Sanitation.
  • It provided guidelines to the Government regarding Public Health in all districts of Telangana.
  • It Also provides grants for “Prakruthi Chikitsa Hospital” (Nature cure Hospital) in Ameerpet, Hyderabad. It submitted a report to the government for protection of sanitation and public health.
  • The Committee recommended forming the system of national level Election Commission at state level to conduct elections to the local bodies like Municipalities and Gram Panchayats.
  • In the same way it also recommended that to form an independent commission for Reorganization of local bodies constituencies.
  • The Telangana Regional Committee showed special interest in Government Employees.
  • 4th,gth & 7h points in Gentlemen’s Agreement are related to Government services.
  • But there were no provisions of Government Employees Services in the presidential order to form the Regional Committee.
  • Government Argued that services related matters would not come in the purview of Regional Committee.
  • There were differences between the Government and the Chairman of the Regional Committee regarding the issue.
  • During the period 1961-63, the Regional Committee framed and implemented many schemes to use the surplus funds of Telangana Region.
  • These schemes were called Telangana Regional Committee Schemes.
  • Among all the schemes, issues of grants towards Osmania University was an important one.
  • Telangana Regional Committee approved 3 crores of reserve funds to Osmania University, and the funds must be invested in the form of Development Bonds in the Electricity Board for 10 years to the use of Electrification in Telangana region.
  • The Interest arising  from such funds should be used for Osmania University Developments Schemes.
  • The Osmania University has been benefited a lot through this scheme,

Conclusion

  • The Telangana Regional Committee was formed basically to act as a safeguard to the Telangana region.
  • But due to the arrogance of Andhra leaders, expectations of the Regional Committee have not been reached.
  • In its own purview, it has given inspirational instructions.
  • Due to the misleading stand on Telangana safeguards by the Andhra leaders, the Telangana agitation reached its peak stage in 1969.
  • In such a situation the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 11, 1969 has announced the “8 points formula” ‘scheme to solve the problems of Telangana Region.
  • In this scheme, the power of Telangana Regional Committee increased, it was shown as the fifth point.
  • In 1972 the Supreme Court upheld the Mulki Rules as constitutional.
  • Later, the people of Andhra Region strongly opposed and started the Jai Andhra movement”.
  • Later on September 2 1, 1973, as a result of declaration of “Sixpoint Formula'”, Scheme of Mulki rules and the Telangana Regional Committee were abolished.

Chair persons of Telangana Regional Committee:

  1. K.Achyutha Reddy (1960-64)
  2. T. Haygriva Chary(1964-67)
  3. J. Chokka Rao(1967-72)
  4. K. Raja Mallu(1972-73)

Deputy Chair persons of Telangana Regional Committee:

  1. Masuma Begum(1960-64)
  2. T. Ranga Reddy(1964-67)
  3. K. Raja Mallu(1967-72)
  4. Sayyed Rahmat Ali(1972-73)Q. Discuss the formation, structure, and functions of the Telangana Regional Committee as established under the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1956
    Introduction The Telangana Regional Committee was a pivotal outcome of the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1956, formed to ensure equitable resource distribution and address regional disparities between Telangana and Andhra during the initial stages of the formation of Andhra Pradesh. The agreement was crucial in addressing Telangana’s concerns about merging with the financially weaker Andhra region.
    Body ·         Formation of the Telangana Regional Committee: The Committee was formalized through the “Note on Safeguards” introduced in the Indian Parliament, which led to its statutory recognition in 1958 under the Andhra Pradesh State Act. Initially proposed as the “Telangana Region Council” in the Gentlemen’s Agreement, the name was modified to “Telangana Regional Committee” in the act. Despite its legal backing, the actual functional establishment of the committee saw delays, with its executive body members being appointed only in 1960 during the tenure of Chief Minister Damodaram Sanjeevaiah.

    Structure and Election Procedure: The Committee comprised 20 members:

    ·         Nine members representing the nine districts of Telangana, elected by Telangana Assembly members (MLAs) district-wise.

    ·         Six members were to be Telangana MLAs or MPs elected by Telangana Assembly Members.

    ·         Five additional members, not part of the legislative Assembly, were elected by Telangana MLAs. Ministers from Telangana served as ex-officio members of the committee.

    The leadership of the Committee included a Chairman and a Deputy Chairman, elected by Telangana MLAs using an “Open Ballot System.” The first Chairman elected was K. Achyutha Reddy of the Congress party, who notably defeated Raavi Narayana Reddy of the CPI party.

    ·         Functions and Impact: The primary function of the Telangana Regional Committee was to oversee and make decisions regarding development issues specific to Telangana. This included matters related to water supply, agricultural projects, industrial development, and specific employment concerns within Telangana. The Committee was empowered to act as a statutory body, ensuring that the developmental needs and regional disparities were adequately addressed. In cases of disagreements with the state government, the issues could be escalated to the Government of India for resolution.

    ·         The impact of the Telangana Regional Committee was significant in shaping the regional governance and administrative practices within Telangana. It provided a platform for addressing local concerns and ensured that Telangana had a voice in the larger context of state governance. However, the effectiveness of the committee was occasionally hampered by political dynamics and delays in operationalization, reflecting the complexities of regional governance in a newly formed state.
    Conclusion The Telangana Regional Committee was an essential mechanism intended to safeguard the interests of the Telangana region during the initial years following the formation of Andhra Pradesh. While it faced challenges in implementation, the committee was fundamental in addressing regional disparities and fostering equitable development within the state.
Scroll to Top