What is Telagana?

The Telangana Issue:-

What is Telagana?

Telangana is a region in Andhra Pradesh and was originally a princelystate, ruled by the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh todayas it stands, can be divided into three regions‘ Telangana, Rayalaseemaand Coastal Andhra.

The Telangana region comprises of districts in Western and Central Andhra Pradesh (Adilabad, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak, Warangal,Khammam, Hyderabad, Rangareddy, Nalgonda, and Mahaboobnagar) Itcomprises 10 of Andhra Pradesh’s 23 districts. It accounts for 119 seats out of the 294 seats in Assembly.

Telegana at the time of Independence:-

     After Independence, the Nizam of Hyderabad wanted to retain his hold over the state. But the Government of India had other plans and amalga-mated his state on 17th September 1948 by force.
     On a historic note, Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra were part of the Madras Province under the British Empire. However post independence Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra were separated from the Madras State
in 1953 and were merged with the Telangana region of Hyderabad in 1956 to form the state of Andhra Pradesh.
     The remaining parts of the Telangana region were merged with Karnataka and Maharashtra. This was the first state that was carved out on linguistic lines in the country. 

Demands for a separate Telangana State:-

Demands for carving out a separate Telangana State became more buoyant during 1969. There are quite a few reasons for this:-

(!)There were distinct differences between Telangana and   Andhra Re-gions.
(!!)Andhra that was initially a part of Madras presidency had much better standards of development and education. Telangana on the other hand was more feudal in its approach and much less developed.
(!!!)he Telangana people had reservations also because they feared they would lose out on many jobs with the merger
(!v)he cultural differences too were apparent. Under the rule of the Ni-
zam the Telangana region bore influences of Northern India. The kind of festivals being celebrated too was different.
The 1969 AgitationThis was primarily a student protest which erupted in the region.

The 1969 Agitation:-

This was primarily a student protest which erupted in the regions of Telangana with Osmania Univeristy proving to be the hot bed of it all. The protests became massive with huge numbers of people taking part in the agitation.
   Over 350 people lost their lives in lathi charge and police firing. Former Congress leader Channa Reddy who defected to form his own party the‘Telangana Praja Samithi’ later diluted the impact of the agitation as hemerged with the Congress.
   Channa Reddy was also the same person responsible for raising slo-gans like ‘Jai Telangana’. The Prime Minister Indira Gandhi later went on
to make him the Chief Minister after which the movement collapsed.
 After this P.V Narasimha Rao was also made the Chief Minister in 1971.He was also from the Telangana region.

The role of K Chandrasekhar Rao:-

K Chandrasekhar Rao was a member of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) during the 1990’s. While hoping for a ministerial birth he only got that of a deputy speaker following the 1999 elections.

KCR quit TDP in 2001 and set about to form the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) which he announced would fight for the formation of a
separate Telangana State. The timing could not have been more perfect for KCR considering the fact the people of Telangana were already feeling looted.

In the elections of 2004 YS Rajashekara Reddy and KCR decided to join hands after YSR promised him the formation of a separate Telan-gana State. But later YSR backtracked and sent a report to the Congress against the formation of the Telangana State.

On November 29, 2009, KCR took a fast until death demanding that the Congress Government introduce the Telangana bill in the parliament.Student’s rallies and people from various organizations took part in thedemands and there were massive protests in many regions of Telan-gana.
     With KCR’s health fast failing the centre was forced to look into issueand finally gave into his request of a separate state making KCR end his11 day fast.
Srikrishna committee headed by Justice BN Srikrishna was then setup to look into wether a separate state should be carved out or a united Andhra must remain.
    The committee was constituted by the Government of India in 3 Febru-ary 2010 and expected to submit its report on 30 December 2010 to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
    As part of the committee they invited people from all sections of the society and also toured the entire state where they got the opinions of a lot of people on what they felt about the issue. The SriKrishna Report was released on the internet to the public on 6 January 2011.
The issue is still being contemplated in the political circles.
   These two papers are the only changes that have been introduced by the government which will be enforced from next year onwards that is 2011.
   The rest of the pattern will remain the same as before. The aspirants clearing these two examinations will then be short listed for the main exam and then the interviews which will be followed after giving the main exams.

 The pattern for the main exam and the interview will remain the same until next year or in other words next year would be more or less a trial basis for a new pattern.

   If the government feels that there is a need for change in pattern of the main exam as well as the interview then it will be considered after next year. As of now the two aptitude tests are the only main changes in the civil services examination.

These changes are definitely for the better as this pattern will give more people the encouragement and hope that civil services is not next to impossible and there is chance for even the average hard working people.
It is hoped that more number of people will be able to clear the papers so that a fair chance is given to all of them to prove themselves.