The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed at the admission stage a writ petition for a direction to the Centre and Andhra Pradesh to implement the provisions of the 1956 Gentlemen's Agreement of Andhra Pradesh.
A Bench of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice Deepak Verma dismissed the petition filed by one M. Narasimha Swamy of Hyderabad, seeking enforcement of the Agreement contending that it had been violated.
The petitioner submitted that the Gentlemen's Agreement provided safeguards with the purpose of preventing discrimination against Telangana by the Andhra Pradesh government.
“The alleged violations of this Agreement are cited as one of the reasons for the demand for separate statehood for Telangana.”
Protection
The petitioner said the protection available through the Telangana Regional Committee with regard to scheduled matters include “local self-government; public health and sanitation; local hospitals and dispensaries; primary and secondary education; regulation of admissions to educational institutions; sale of agricultural lands; cottage and small scale industries, agriculture, cooperative societies, markets etc.” By abolishing this committee, the Telangana region had suffered.
The petition pointed out that all the agreements, accords, formulas, plans and assurances on the floor of the State Legislature and Lok Sabha could not be honoured and Telangana was forced to remain neglected, exploited and backward.
