INDIA'S RULING CONGRESS PARTY APPROVES NEW STATE

MUMBAI,INDIA, July 30,2013 (AFP)India's ruling Congress party approved a resolution Tuesday to create a new state in the southeast amid fears the decision could spark violence in the region which includes IT hub Hyderabad.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and other senior party leaders agreed to grant longstanding demands for the state of Telangana to be carved out of Andhra Pradesh state.

“A resolution was passed in the meeting where it was resolved to request the central government to take steps to form a separate state of Telangana,” Congress spokesman Ajay Maken said.

The resolution was cleared “after taking into account the chequered history of the demand for a separate state of Telangana since 1956,” Maken told a news conference in

A resolution was passed in the meeting where it was resolved to request the central government to take steps to form a separate state of Telangana

New Delhi.

The Congress move must still be approved by parliament but the new state's creation has the backing of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has accused the government of “dilly-dallying” on the issue.

The planned state, which would be India's 29th, would be created out of an impoverished, drought-prone mainly tribal belt that supporters say has been neglected by successive Andhra Pradesh governments.

But Andhra Pradesh's wealthier regions are strongly opposed to the move.

Critics said New Delhi risked opening a “Pandora's box” of demands for statehood by other regional groups in ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse India, which also has a host of separatist movements.

“The message being sent out is 'you agitate for some years and you can have your own state',” said K.G. Suresh, a fellow at Delhi-based thinktank, Vivekanand International Foundation.