CM Kiran Kumar Reddy to Centre: Is Telangana Bill draft or final?

HYDERABAD: Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Monday dared the Centre to come out in writing whether the Telangana Bill sent to the assembly was a draft Bill or the final one.

Snubbing Union minister Jairam Ramesh for his remark in New Delhi that the draft Bill and the final Bill are one and the same, a peeved Kiran Kumar asked whether it was Ramesh's personal opinion. "If it is the Centre's opinion, they should give it in writing," he told the media.

The chief minister's statement sent ripples through the central government. AICC general secretary and in-charge of AP affairs, Digvijay Singh, was one such leader who called him up during the day,

On Sunday, Singh had said that "flaws, if any, in the Bill can be rectified in Parliament", indicating that the Congress did not want a showdown with Kiran at the moment.

"If the Centre says it has sent the final bill, then it has to answer to the Union home ministry, as it has termed it as draft Bill in its correspondence with the state ," said a senior official in the legislature department. In his letter to the state government dated January 6, Union home secretary Anil Goswami mentions it as a draft Bill. However, the President, in his letter, had clearly mentioned that he was dispatching the AP Reorganisation Bill.