Decision on Telangana within a month: Shinde

Home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Friday that the government will take a decision on the Telangana statehood within one month after an all party meet on the issue. "The meeting was very cordial. Some representatives said decision should be given as early as possible and some said that it should be taken within a month," Shinde told reporters. He said that he has full faith that there will be a solution to the problems being faced by people of Andhra Pradesh. Stating that the Friday meeting was the last time all parties would discuss the Telangana issue, Shinde said, "There will be a good decision." Representatives from eight major political parties from Andhra Pradesh were likely to have attended the meeting on the four-decade-old demand for Telangana. The demand to carve a new state out of the economically less developed part of Andhra Pradesh gathered momentum after the Congress party-ruled government accepted the demand in-principle. So far, 33 Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Praja Rajyam Party and Independent lawmakers hailing from the Telangana region have resigned from parliament as well as the Andhra Pradesh state assembly. The demand for the separate state has seen violent protests and political power play, with more than 300 people killed between 1969 and 1972.