Telangana leaders to continue dialogue

NEW DELHI:  Maintaining that they will not budge from the demand for a separate Telangana, Congress party leaders from the Telangana region on Friday agreed to hold discussions on the issue with the Union Minister and in-charge of party affairs Ghulam Nabi Azad from Monday.Though these leaders were scheduled to meet Azad on Friday evening, they were disinclined to hold consultations with him initially, irked with the comments made by Azad on Thursday. However, the matter was resolved only when Minister K Jana Reddy and Rajya Sabha MP K Kesava Rao met him at his office, apprising Azad of the feelings of their colleagues. The Telangana MPs joined the meeting with Azad following an explanation from him. During the two-hour-long meeting, Azad asked the Telangana leaders to give their proposals on various issues, such as capital Hyderabad and water-sharing in writing so that he could discuss those issues with the leaders from the non-Telangana regions and come back to them.The Telangana leaders agreed to the idea and prepared to give their viewpoint and the steps taken by the Congress on separate state issue. However, they made it clear that the discussions would focus on the creation of Telangana.Azad suggested that he wanted to hold discussions with a smaller delegation. The Telangana leaders agreed to send a 10-member delegation on Monday to continue the consultation. Gutha Sukhender Reddy and Manda Jaganadham said Telangana leaders would not take back their resignations until the process of creation of Telangana state was initiated.