AP CM urges PM to delete controversial clause

HYDERABAD: With protests in Telangana looming large, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy Tuesday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take immediate steps for deletion of a clause from the 1975 presidential order that treats this state capital as a free zone for police recruitment.As Telangana is set to observe shutdown Wednesday on a call given by Telangana students' groups, Reddy spoke to Manmohan Singh over phone and emphasised the need to delete the clause.According to sources in the chief minister's office, the prime minister assured him that a decision on the issue would be taken at a meeting of the political affairs committee Tuesday evening.Groups fighting for separate statehood to Telangana have threatened to disrupt the written test for recruitment of sub-inspectors of police if it is conducted without deleting clause 14(F) from the presidential order.Some students' groups have also called a two-day shutdown Aug 13 and 14, when the test is scheduled to be held.Telangana groups want the clause to be deleted so that Hyderabad is brought under Zone VI to ensure that only people from Hyderabad and five other Telangana districts are eligible for police recruitment in the capital.The Supreme Court in 2009 had ruled that Hyderabad is a free zone for police recruitments. The verdict evoked strong protests.The Andhra Pradesh assembly last year passed a resolution, urging the central government to delete the controversial clause.However, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram last week said the state assembly should unanimously pass another resolution in this regard.The chief minister the same day rejected this suggestion, saying passing a fresh resolution is impossible in the prevailing emotionally-charged atmosphere.Reddy last week also wrote a letter to the prime minister, stating that a second resolution by the assembly was not possible.He also argued that there was no need for a fresh resolution as the composition of the assembly had not changed since the passing of the resolution last year.