Green light for 29th state Telangana
* UPA, CWC endorse creation of a separate state out of Andhra
* Hyderabad to be joint capital for 10 years
* Process to be completed in four months
New Delhi, July 30
Telangana is all set to become the 29th state of India after the Congress today accepted the 57-year-old demand of the people of the region. The party insisted it had conceded to the demand in deference to the sentiments of its seekers and not on account of any political expediency.
Cong hopes to neutralise key rivals TDP, YSR Cong

Telangana stokes fresh Bodoland stir The Telangana tangle Pro- Telangana students of Osmania University celebrate in Hyderabad on Tuesday. AFP

Polls on mind, Cong takes planned plunge
New Delhi, July 30
It’s a cold and calculated political plunge the Congress has taken in carving out a separate Telangana state from Andhra Pradesh.

PM Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi with other leaders at the CWC meeting on Telangana at 10 Janpath in New Delhi on Tuesday. A Tribune photo

IT hub a major bone of contention
Hyderabad, July 30
Hyderabad, the bustling IT hub with a population of over 80 lakh, has been a major bone of contention between the protagonists and opponents of the Telangana statehood.

5-decade wait for separate identity
Hyderabad, July 30
Telangana has been a festering wound for over five decades. The intermittent policy prescriptions to correct the anomalies in the past have never really helped in healing the wound.

Modi slams Centre for ‘delay’
Ahmedabad, July 30
Gujarat Chief Minister and chief of BJP parliamentary elections campaign committee Narendra Modi has welcomed the decision in favour of a separate Telangana state but lashed out at the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre for "delaying" a decision by nine years.

Will wait till Bill is introduced in House: Rao
Hyderabad, July 30
For someone who has spearheaded the movement for separate Telangana state for over 12 years, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) founder-president K Chandrasekhar Rao was surprisingly subdued and cautious over the announcement on carving out a new state.

Batla case: Shahzad gets life term
New Delhi, July 30
A Delhi court today awarded life sentence to suspected Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist Shahzad Ahmed for gunning down police inspector MC Sharma in an encounter in Batla House area in South Delhi’s Jamia Nagar on September 19, 2008.

Sukhbir agrees to simplify e-trip norms
Chandigarh, July 30
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today indicated it was ready to listen to and resolve any grievance of traders regarding the implementation of the e-trip regime.

IPL spot-fixing: Dawood, Sree, Chandila chargesheeted New Delhi, July 30 The Delhi Police filed its chargesheet in the Indian Premier League (IPL) spot-fixing case at a court here today, naming underworld fugitive don, Dawood Ibrahim, and three arrested cricketers Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan as some of the accused.