About Telengana - the 29th State of India

Telengana is the 29th state of India which became a separate state on 2nd June, 2014. The Telengana was a part of Andhra Pradesh state earlier.  Before India became independent, Telengana region was a part of the state of Hyderabad which comprised two divisions namely Warangal and Medak.  The region was governed by Nizams at that time.  The Telengana has a population of 52,85,757 as per 2011 census which accounted for 41.6% of the population of combined state of Andhra Pradesh.

History of formation of Telengana

The movement to create a separate state of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh had started long back. There had been several movements but the most important ones happened during 1969, 1972 and 2009. Over the years, the movement only gathered a lot of steam.

The process of creating the separate state of Telangana was initiated on 9 December 2009 with a formal announcement from the Indian Government. However, as a mark of protest against this decision, MLAs and MPs from the Rayalseema and Coastal Andhra areas tendered their resignations.

There was a lot of protest after the said announcement.  As a result of this, the Government has put off the process of creating the new state.  on 23 December 2009.  The Telangana movement, however, continued unabated in Hyderabad as well as other districts of the region.

However, the process began again on 30 July 2013 when the Congress party decided to plead with the Indian Government to create the new state of Telangana. It was decided that Hyderabad to be the joint capital of both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for the next decade. The cabinet has approved the process of creation of Telengana on 3rd October, 2013.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) draft bill on Telangana was approved by the Indian Government on 5 December 2013, following which the bill was submitted to the Parliament so that both the houses could vote on the same. The 15th Lok Sabha voted in favour of creating a new state on 18 February 2014 and the Rajya Sabha followed suit on 20 February 2014.

Pranab Mukherjee, the President of India, provided his consent to the decision on 1 March 2014 and the Gazette notification for the same was brought out on the same day. It was announced by the Indian Government on 4 March 2014 that the new state of Telangana would be created and hence it was formed on 2 June 2014.