Formation of Andhra Pradesh State
The demand for the creation of Visalandhra gained ground after
police action in Hyderabad.
The formation of Visalandhra or united Andhra Pradesh was first
of all the idea of the Communist Party. Sri Puchchalapalli Sundaraiah was the 1st
to talk about the formation of the united A.P. In 1945, he founded a newspaper by
name Visalandhra and wrote a book called Visalandhralo Prajarajyam(People’s government
in Visalandhra) presenting a detailed blue print of the future scenario of the
united province highlighting the various plans and schemes.
In the general elections of 1952, the
Congress came to power at the center but in Telangana the congress could not
secure absolute majority as the communists scored a resounding victory and were
in majority.
The formation of Andhra State on linguistic basis on 1st
October, 1953 in turn influenced the nation wide politics, particularly the
State of Hyderabad.
The Andhra leaders, the communists of
Telangana and Telangana Regional Congress Committee strongly supported the
formation of Visalandhra. But the Congress leaders were divided on the issue.
Swami Ramananda Tirtha, Burgula Rama Krishna Rao and others favoured the
formation Visalandhra whereas K.V.Ranga Reddy, M.Chenna reddy and others
opposed it.
In December 1953, the Union Government
set up a States Reorganisation Commission to consider the question of
reorganization of States on linguistic basis with Fazal Ali as Chairman and
K.M.Pannikkar and H.V.Kunzru as members.
The S.R.C presented the report in
September, 1955. The Commission recommended the disintegration of Hyderabad
state and the formation of Visalandhra. It underlined the benefits of a large state
comprising of both Andhra and Telangana with about 32 million people and
considerable rich hinterland, plenty of water and raw materials. It even
suggested that Hyderabad would be highly suitable as the capital.
It recommended that in the next
general elections likely to be held in 1961, if a 2/3 majority of the members in
the new legislature of the Hyderabad state opts for a united state, Visalandhra
could be formed. Until then Telangana should be continued as a separate state.
The advocates of Telangana were elated
with the report. But the majority of people including the Congress and
communist legislators expressed their resentment. The communist legislators
declared that they were prepared to resign to their legislative membership and
contest again on the issue of Visalandhra.
In the vote taken in the Hyderabad
legislature, of the 174 members of the House barring the Speaker, 147 who
participated in the voting, 103 were in favour of Visalandhra whereas 29 voted
for Telangana and 15 remained neutral.
Meanwhile the Andhra Legislative
Assembly had unanimously passed a resolution favouring the formation of united
Telugu province.
Under these circumstances, the
Congress High Command convened a meeting of the representatives of the two
regions in Delhi on 26th February 1956.
To dispel the doubts of Telangana
leaders, certain safeguards were provided in the Gentlemen’s Agreement signed
by the leaders of both the regions including the Chief Ministers and Presidents
of the Congress Committees.
The Gentlemen’s Agreement was signed by
Bezawada Gopala Reddy, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, Gouthu Lachchanna and Alluri
Satyanarayana Raju on behalf of Andhra Region and Burugula Ramakrishna Rao,
K.V.Ranga Reddy, Marri Chenna reddy and J.V.narsing Rao on behalf of Telangana.
The main provisions of the agreement are
summarized below.
1.
The administrative
expenditure should be borne proportionately by the two regions.
2.
The educational
facilities prevalent in Telangana should be provided exclusively to the
students of Telangana with some exceptions. Further improvements in this regard
should be made.
3.
Recruitment to the
services shall be done on the basis of population of the regions.
4.
Domicile rules should be
made on the basis of residence for a certain number of years, for example 12
years to assure the prescribed proportion to the recruitment of services for
the Telangana area.
5.
Steps will be initiated
to constitute a Regional Council for the Telangana region with a view to ensure
its all-round development.
6.
The Council shall be a
statutory body.
7.
The Council of Ministers
will consist of members in proportion of 60 to 40 percent for the Andhra and
Telangana regions respectively.
8.
If the Chief Minister is
from Andhra, the Deputy Chief Minister will be from Telangana and vice-versa.
Government
of India accorded statutory protection to the agreement. Thus Andhra Pradesh was
formed on 1st November, 1956 with N.Sanjeeva Reddy as C.M and
Trivedi as 1st Governor.
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