Wednesday, May 11 2005 09:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) has asked the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition to set up a special sub-committee on the Telengana issue, maintaining that division of Andhra Pradesh was not a solution to the problems of backwardness.

"It will be wrong to presume that division of the State is a solution for the problems of backwardness, although specific measures are warranted to preserve the social, linguistic and cultural integrity of that specific area," RSP leader Abani Roy said in a letter to leader of Lok Sabha and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

Seeking the setting up of a special sub-committee on Telengana by the UPA to consider these aspects, he demanded that the National Development Council (NDC) and the Inter-State Council should be activated to look into the problems of regional disparities.

Roy said carving more states out of the existing ones would make the new smaller states "more dependent on the Centre" and lead to fresh demands for further fragmentation of the existing States.

Pointing out that continued deprivation and large-scale suicides of peasants and other downtrodden people coupled with non-fulfilment of aspirations of the middle class had led to the creation of the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), he said the UPA through the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) was committed to redressing regional imbalances among and within States through fiscal, administrative, investments and other measures.