Public RelationsCongress to meet on Dec 29 over JAC participation
The ruling Congress party will hold a meeting of its MPs and MLAs on December 29 to decide on its participation in the joint action committee (JAC) floated to lead the agitation for a separate Telangana statehood.
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“Congress being a national party, we have to discuss the size of the JAC. Hence, we are meeting on December 29 to discuss how to participate in it,” senior MLA R Damodar Reddy told mediapersons here on Sunday.
While expressing confidence that party president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will grant statehood to Telangana, Reddy said Congress legislators from the Telangana region were trying to convince the high command on the need to announce the formation of a separate state.
Meanwhile, all the three regions in the state – Andhra, Telangana and Rayalaseema – saw destruction of public and private properties worth over Rs 250 crore due to the ongoing agitations.
Of this, around 80 per cent of the loss was incurred in the Telangana region. As many as 52 public and 28 private properties were set ablaze, while 62 public and 114 private properties were damaged in the violence that broke in the region from November 29 to December 9, government sources said.
According to the statistics available with the police department, the agitations supporting a ‘United Andhra’ reported 37 public properties and 11 private properties being burnt and 46 public and 47 private properties damaged between December 10 and 23.
“As many as 35 Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation buses were burnt while another 214 were damaged. Fifty private buses too were damaged and seven set on fire by the pro-Telangana activists,” sources said.
“Apart from attacks on railway properties in view of bandhs, rail rokos and demonstrations, the railways lost crores of rupees as goods and parcels piled up at various railway stations due to non-transportation,” said a senior official from the South Central Railway.