Cabinet meets over Telangana crisis

New Delhi: With crisis brewing over demand for a separate Telangana, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) on Monday held a crucial meeting even as parliamentarians and legislators, including from the ruling Congress and opposition parties, from the region in Andhra Pradesh, quit their posts.
The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was held at his 7, Race Course Road official residence, government sources said.
The confabulation of the senior government functionaries comes shortly after 10 Congress members of parliament and 40 Congress legislators, including 11 ministers, 33 TDP and two Praja Rajyam Party legislators from the Telangana region resigned to bring pressure on the central government to announce statehood.
The problems were compounded for the UPA government at the centre with the Telangana Joint Action Committee (TJAC), which is spearheading the movement for a separate state, calling for a two-day shutdown in the region beginning Tuesday.
The JAC, comprising the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other political and non-political outfits, also called for a rail blockade July 8 and 9.