Power to guv row: Telangana ‘warns’ NDA govt of conflict

 Telangana government on Sunday made it clear that while it does not want to ‘invite’ conflict with the Centre, it would certainly seek recourse if the union home ministry’s directive over vesting certain special powers related to law and order in Hyderabad with the governor is not rescinded.

State information technology and panchayat raj minister KT Rama Rao, who is the son of chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao termed the 8 August letter of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) as an ‘unprecedented situation’.

‘We are not inviting conflict with the Centre,’ the minister stressed, but hastened to add that if the Centre ‘imposes its opinion’ (does not rescind the directive), the state government would be left with no choice but to take recourse.

‘And what that recourse would be... it would be made explicitly clear in the coming days,’ he said.

Pointing out that law and order is a state subject, Rama Rao said any move by the Centre to infringe upon the rights of an elected state government is detrimental to the overall spirit of federalism.