Telangana process to be completed during UPA tenure: Sushil Kumar Shinde

Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Monday was non-commital on whether a Bill for creation of separate Telangana will be tabled in the coming winter session of Parliament but said the process will be completed within the current tenure of UPA government.

"I can tell you that the process (for creation of Telangana) will be completed during our present tenure till 2014 in the government," Shinde told reporters during his monthly press conference in New Delhi.

The Home Minister also said he met the Secretaries of various central ministries of water resources, power, finance, rural development and human resource development in order to thrash out issues related to divison of assets between the proposed Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

He said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Reddy has not met him yet and hence he could not comment on the latter's stand on the bifurcation of the state. Asked whether there was a move to control the police and law and order machinery of Hyderabad by the central government for a certain period of time, Shinde said the proposal was under consideration and no final decision was taken.

The Group of Ministers (GoM), set up to look into the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, will separately meet eight political parties of Andhra Pradesh on November 12 and 13 and union ministers from the state on November 18 to discuss various issues related to the creation of Telangana.

Talking about other issues, Shinde said investigations into the recent 'Gandhi maidan' blasts in Bihar's Patna, where Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi held a rally on October 27, have not thrown up links to any of India's neighbours. Shinde said his ministry has not taken any decision to pull back paramilitary force Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) from the border with China.

"The ITBP will be as it is," he said while replying to a query. He also said the government is fencing the border to curb illegal migration from neighbouring countries like Bangladesh. Shinde rejected Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's recent criticism that his Ministry is not extending help to fill vacant IPS posts in the coastal state. The law and order situation in a state, Shinde said, is not handled solely by IPS officers but by local police.

"I have been the Chief Minister of a big state like Maharashtra...but one or two IPS officers if they are not there it is not that law and order cannot be controlled," he said. The Goa government had criticised the Centre for turning a deaf ear to its repeated requests on filling top posts in the state police force.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, in a letter addressed to Shinde, said the Union Ministry is averse to filling senior positions that have been lying vacant for sometime.