Telangana: Delays likely as TRS demands share of KG Basin pie

In what could prove to be a major headache for the Congress and the UPA who have committed themselves to carving out a separate state of Telangana, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has now demanded a share of revenue from oil and gas resources in KG Basin.A report in The Economic Times says TRS has made the demand just before Thursday's meeting of a ministerial panel on the creation of Telangana. The demands came via a memorandum to the panel.[caption id="attachment_121373" align="alignleft" width="380"] TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao. PTI[/caption]The TRS, for its part, maintains that the absence of a coastline in proposed Telangana does not mean that the state cannot seek a share of resources that belong to the Centre. The state government of Andhra Pradesh receives royalty from onshore oil and gas assets, but offshore assets including the KG Basin are controlled by the Union government.By that logic, Seemandhra cannot claim to control the resources in the offshore KG Basin.However, the TRS's demand and its timing are likely to throw a spoke in the wheel, delaying the creation of Telangana.