Telangana Movement and State Formation

Class 19: Telangana Regional Committee

- Sairam Sampatirao
 Introduction
- It’s not an uncommon phenomenon
wherein the most developed regions
provide protections or safeguards to
less developed ones when there is wide
disparities between different regions.

- These protections or safeguards are

provided to narrow down the scale of
exploitation by the majority group and
to enhance livelihoods and living
standards of minorities.

- Many historical events clearly

manifested the employment of various
safeguards to backward regions.

- Example: Safeguards provided to

Scotland and Northern Ireland by Great
Britain.
- Similarly, according to the provisions
listed under The Gentlemen’s
Agreement which was signed on 20th
Feb, 1956, Andhra Pradesh Regional
Committee / Telangana Regional
Committee / Telangana Standing
Committee was established to ensure
various protections and safeguards to
the people of Telangana.

- Telangana Regional Committee and its

members were given great
responsibilities to raise the issues and
the plight of Telangana people.

- With the introduction of Note on

safeguards proposed for Telangana
Region, Gentlemen’s agreement was
given the statutory status by then
central government
 Constitution 7th - It laid out two classifications of units
a) States and b) Union domains
Amendment Act, 1956
- The posts of Rajpramukhs were
- The 7th Amendment of Indian nullified
Constitution was needed to implement
the recommendations of the States - The Constitutional Amendment Act
Reorganisation Commission regarding made 14 states and 6 association
the reorganization of the states on a regions
linguistic basis.
- With the introduction of article
371(1) and 371(2), the act proposed
- It paved way for doing away with
the creation of Regional Committees
classification of states in A, B, C and D
for the states of Punjab, Bombay and
categories and introduced of Union
Andhra Pradesh by the President.
Territories.

- The areas and boundaries pertaining to

the States and Union territories which
were present in the first schedule of the
Constitution was completely revised to
reflect the changes brought in by the
reorganization scheme.
Presidential Orders (1958)

- Using the powers derived from the

articles 371(1) and 371(2) of the
constitution, the President of India
issued the order titled The Andhra
Pradesh Regional Committee Order -
1958 to form the Telangana Regional
Committee.

- But after good two years, the

executive body of Telangana
Regional Committee was formed in
1960.
Composition of the Committee
The Regional Committee will consist of 20
members as follows:

- 9 members of the Assembly representing

each district of Telangana to be elected by
the Assembly members of the Telangana
districts separately.

- 6 members of the Assembly or the

Parliament elected by the Telangana
representatives in the Assembly.

- 5 members from outside the Assembly to be

elected by the Telangana members of the
Assembly.

- All ministers from Telangana region will be

members. The Chief Minister or Deputy Chief
Minister, whoever is from Telangana will be
the Chairman of the Council. Other Cabinet
Ministers may also be invited.
Election of Chairman and Deputy
Chairman

- The Telangana Regional Committee

consists of a Chairman and a Deputy
Chairman.

- They will be elected by the

Telangana Legislators.

- Governor of the state issues a

notification regarding their election,
which is conducted through an open
ballot system.
 Removal of Chairman and
Deputy Chairman

- The Chairman and his/her deputy

loses their position on following
grounds:

A. When they lose membership of

the house.

B. Through a resolution passed

through a special majority by the
members of regional committee

C. Resignation
First Chairman of Telangana Telangana Regional Committee
Regional Committee Presidents:

- Cabinet Minister, Mehdi Nawazjung 1. K.Achyuta Reddy - 1958-1962

presided over the Telangana Regional
Committee meeting held on 31st 2. T. Hayagrivachari - 1962-1967
March, 1958.
3. J. Chokkarao -1967-1972
- Chairman was elected on the same 4. Kodati Rajamallu. - 1972
day.
Telangana Regional Committee
- Prominent congress leader named K Vice-Presidents:
Achyutha Reddy won over communist
party leader, Ravi Narayan Reddy to 1. Masuma Begum - 1958-62
become the first Chairman of the
committee. 2. T. Ranga Reddy -1962-67

- Masuma Begum was elected 3. K. Rajamallu -1967-72

unanimously as Deputy Chairman.
4. Sayyid Rahmat Ali -1972-73
 Committee Meetings

- The meeting is convened by the

Chairman of the committee.

- In the absence of Chairman,

Deputy Chairman take up this
responsibility of convening the
meeting.

- Quorum - One Third members.

- Question hour was absent.

- Place of meetings - State

Legislature Building.
 Duties of the committee
Telangana Regional Committee looks into the following
matters:

1. Sale of agricultural lands in Telangana

2. Formulation of policies on Primary and Secondary

Education in Telangana

3. Regulates admissions into educational institutions in

Telangana.

4. Examines the constitutional powers vested with various

bodies like developmental agencies, district boards, and
Budget and planning formulated by the state govt.

5. Supervision of various industries like cottage, small

scale industries, agriculture, cooperative societies and
markets

6. Deliberate on matters related to Liquor prohibition in

Telangana

7. Job Recruitments

8. Formulate policies on Holistic Development of

Telangana
 Powers of the Committee

- Draft Bills, Regional Bills and

Finance Bills that affect Telangana
Region and its people have to be
approved by Telangana Regional
Committee before introducing them in
Legislative Assembly.

- When there is a difference of

opinion between the government and
the committee, the governor has the
power to decide on those matters.

- The decision of the governor is

binding on the state government.
 Sub-Committees

The Telangana Regional

Committee consists of two
types of Sub-Committees.

They are:

1. Standing Committees -
Permanent

2. Ad-hoc Committees -
Temporary
Standing Committees:

- Permanent in nature

- To conduct extensive deliberations on

various issues related to Telangana.

- Telangana Regional Committee has

constituted 3 Standing Committees.
They are

1. Standing Committee on Local Bodies

and Public Health

2. Standing Subcommittee on
Education

3. Standing Subcommittee on
Development
Adhoc Committees

- Temporary in nature

- Setup to deliberate on specific

subjects and issues

- 9 Members

- Subcommittees also act as

Quasi-Judicial bodies.

- They have all powers to

summon govt officials on any
matters.
Various initiatives by Telangana
Regional Committee

Education:

The regional committee has been

effective in protecting the regional
benefits in education sector.

Public Health:

- The Regional Committee has played a

very good role in the matter of public
health.

- A grant was released by the committee

for naturopathy hospital in Ameerpet.
TRC Schemes:

- Regional Committee formulated and

implemented various schemes from
Telangana surplus funds between 1961-63.
These schemes were called as TRC
schemes.

- Of all these schemes, the proposed grant

to Osmania University was the most
prominent of all.

- Under this scheme, Osmania University

has been allocated Rs 3 crore and decided
invest these funds in sovereign bonds for
ten years.

- It was also proposed to utilise the interest

accrued from these bonds on universal
electrification of Telangana region and
various other developmental programmes
in Osmania University.
Local bodies:

- TRC advocated the establishment of

an election commission for state level
on the lines of National election
commission to conduct local body
elections like gram panchayat,
municipal corporations.

- Similarly, it recommended the

establishment of an independent
body for the reorganisation of
constituencies of local bodies.
Government services:

- 4,5,7 subjects of the Gentlemen's

Agreement were related to
Government Services.

- But there was no mention of

government employee's service in the
orders issued by the president
forming the regional committee.

- The Regional Committee was formed

to discuss public service matters, but
the Government argued that the
service matters would not be covered
by the Regional Committee which was
denied by the TRC.
 Significance of the committee
- Throughout its active years, APRC or
TRC implemented various programmes
that augmented the growth and
development of Telangana.

- Formulated various policies for the

holistic development of Telangana
Region

- Development of Osmania University

- Public Health was greatly improved.

- To check Anti-Telangana Bills.

- Literacy rate in Telangana has seen

great growth, thanks to the academic
policies formulated by the committee.
 Reasons for the failure of the
committee
- APRC or TRC failed in realising the
aspirations of the people of Telangana,
albeit coming up with various efforts.

- The reasons for the failure of the

committee are as follows:

1. Negligence by the Govt.

2. Political Nexus between Andhra and

Telangana Leaders

3. High command politics by Congress

party

4. Implementational gaps.

5. Skewed Records