Telangana is the 29th State of India, officially formed on 2nd June 2014 with Hyderabad as its historic permanent capital. Telangana Rashtra Samithi party secured a majority in the first elections in the state and Kalvakuntla Chandrashekhar Rao became the first chief minister of Telangana.
History
Erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (Existing from 1956-2014) consisted of three regions namely Coastal Andhra, Telangana, and Rayalaseema. Telangana was previously known as Hyderabad State. It came into existence as Telangana after it gained independence from the rule of the Nizam and was merged with India in 1948. In 1953 the States Reorganisation Committee was appointed to create and segregate states based on linguistic criteria. The SRC recommended the merging of Andhra State and Telangana and the then Home Minister Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant gave the nod to the recommendation. Thus the State of Andhra Pradesh came into existence on 1st November 1956. Before the merger, there was a Gentleman’s Agreement to safeguard the interests of Telangana. The agreement included clauses such as the distribution of Government jobs as per the strength of the population of Telangana and Andhra State, the election of Chief Minister and Dy Chief Minister from each state at a time etc.
Telangana Movement
The Telangana Movement was initiated in the year 1969 by social groups, students and government employees for the creation of a new state, Telangana. The movement demanded the separate entity of the State of Telangana be formed from the regions of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad. The reasons for this demand were as following:
- The people of Telangana felt the government had breached the Gentleman’s Agreement. They were dissatisfied with the implementation of the agreement and guarantees and a violation of the agreement in the areas of jobs, budget allocation, and educational facilities.
- The clause that all Andhra employees who migrated to the capital city of Hyderabad would become local residents after 12 years as per Mulki rules meant that they would be eligible for a share of the government jobs that were meant solely for the people of Telangana. This constituted a lapse of the Gentleman’s Agreement.
- A report by the Vashishta Bhargava Committee stated that 4500 employees were working against the Gentleman’s Agreement.
- The report also stated that 283 million rupees allocated for Telangana were diverted to Andhra region between the years 1956 and 1968.
- The people of Telangana alleged that the funds allocated for the development of the state were never spent for the purpose.
