Hyderabad: A fresh row appears imminent between the governments of the two Telugu speaking states over shifting of the Classical Telugu Research Centre (currently located in Mysore) to AP or Telangana. A decision had been taken by the Union human resources development ministry to shift the centre to AP when the state was united.

A committee was also constituted for the purpose. However, there was no follow-up. After the state’s bifurcation, both the governments conveniently ignored the issue. While the mood in Telangana is to redefine the language, the AP government, though it has failed to move on the issue till now, is planning to write to the Centre.

The HRD ministry had told the then government to identify a suitable temporary location to shift the centre, and a team from the Classical Telugu Centre had visited Hyderabad twice in 2013. Places in Madhapur, OU, Telugu University and also inside Ravidnra Bharati were initially identified. The Kiran Kumar Reddy government had agreed to provide five acre of land for the centre, but political uncertainty in the state and the resultant bifurcation put the matter in the backburner.

“The centre belongs to AP since the people who fought for it hailed from this area. Moreover, we wish to carry forward the Telugu culture and language in the present form. We will shortly celebrate Telugu Language Day officially on the birth anniversary of Gidugu Rammorthy Panthulu, legendary crusader of the spoken Telugu movement,” said Mr Parakala Prabhakar, media advisor to the AP government.

The TS government on the other hand maintains that Hyderabad shall continue to be the centre of activity on Telugu language related issues. “Since Hyderabad is the common capital for both the Telugu states, it (the centre) should be here,” said K.V. Ramanachari, advisor on culture and language for the TS government.