Friday, September 23 2005 14:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: Despite mounting pressure from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on creation of separate Telangana state, the Chairman of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) sub-committee on Telangana and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today (Sept 23, 2005) said no (no) time frame could be set up for taking a decision on the issue.

"The sub-committee will finalize its report after receiving the response from all political parties on the statehood demand. All parties except Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have submitted their views," Mukherjee told reporters on the sidelines of the 32nd National Management Convention in Hyderbad.

Speaking to hold the saffron party responsible for the delay, he said, "We are still awaiting response from BJP because it is a big party and its views do matter. We have already sent a reminder to them seeking their response."

Disagreeing with the view that the Congress was deliberately delaying the process, he said the sub-committee had already held three rounds of meeting and was in the process of ascertaining the views of all political parties.

Asserting that neither the threats from TRS nor the changing political equations could influence the decision of the sub-committee, Mukherjee said creation of a new state involved several constitutional and legal procedures which needed to be examined carefully.

Mukherjee's comments came against the backdrop of the strident stance adopted by TRS, a partner in the UPA Government at the Center, on the statehood issue.

The TRS leaders had recently threatened to review continuing in the government in the event of continued delay in commencing the process for formation of Telangana state.

Declining to spell out his personal opinion on the demand for Telangana statehood, the senior Congress leader said, "Our jobs is to consider the views of all political parties and make recommendations to the Government."

He, however, said the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had, in 2001, passed a resolution favoring constitution of the second State's Re-organization Commission (SRC) to go into the demand for smaller states.

"But, the then National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government had rejected the proposal", Mukherjee said adding that the demand for smaller state was not confined to Telangana alone but was there in other states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh.

The three-member sub-committee was formed in November last year to look into the demand for Telangana State.