New Delhi, Feb. 3: The Centre on Wednesday constituted a five-member expert committee to hold consultations on the "situation in Andhra Pradesh" arising out the demand for the creation of a separate Telangana state.

The five-member committee will be headed by former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna, while former home secretary Vinod K. Duggal will be its member-secretary. Union home secretary G.K. Pillai said the committee would hold wide-ranging consultations with all sections of people and different political parties and groups on "the situation in Andhra Pradesh". A home ministry spokes-person said the terms of reference were still being drafted and would be finalised in consultation with the committee chairman and announced shortly. The official statement on the committee’s formation makes no mention of the word Telangana.

Justice Srikrishna is expected to meet home minister P. Chidambaram in the next few days and the terms of references are expected by the end of the week.

Senior Congress leader and Union law minister M. Veerappa Moily, AICC in-charge for the state, appealed for "peace and calm" in Andhra Pradesh, while the BJP said the committee’s formation was a "delaying tactic".

The TDP too called the committee’s formation a "conspiracy" by the Congress to divide Andhra Pradesh. TDP leaders K. Yerrannaidu, Nimmala Kristappa and Rajya Sabha

MP Mysura Reddy met NCP supremo and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to discuss the Telangana issue after the government’s Wednesday morning announcement.

Besides Justice Srikrishna and Mr Duggal, the committee’s other members are Prof (Dr) Ranbir Singh, vice-chancellor of National Law University, New Delhi; Dr Abusaleh Shariff, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi; and Dr (Ms) Ravinder Kaur, professor in the department of humanities and social sciences at IIT Delhi.

The home ministry said the committee was constituted following Mr Chidambaram’s statements of December 9 and December 23 and the meeting with eight recognised Andhra Pradesh political parties on January 5. Following the January 5 meeting, Mr Chidambaram noted that the parties were divided on the creation of a separate Telangana. "I summed up their views and will take them to the Prime Minister and formulate a course of action," he had said after that five-hour-long meeting.

TDP leaders said on Wednesday that the committee would be credible only if it had a "national perspective" — saying it should go into statehood demands elsewhere in the country as well. "If it only (considers) the situation in Andhra Pradesh, it looks like the Centre is working on a predetermined action plan. It can then only be described as a conspiracy to divide the state," Mr Mysura Reddy said.

The BJP, claiming the Centre’s move was "a futile exercise", particularly as no timeframe had been spelt out. Said party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar: "The BJP rejects lock, stock and barrel the committee set up by the Centre. It will serve no purpose as there is no clear reference (on) creation of Telangana, no timeframe ... laid, nor terms of reference spelt out."

Age Correspondents