HYDERABAD, June 2 � Capping decades of struggle, Telangana came into being as the 29th state of India when TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao was today sworn in as Chief Minister at the head of a 11-member Cabinet that included his son and nephew, reports PTI.
Turning the clock back 57 years when the Telugu-speaking Telangana region of Hyderabad was merged with Andhra State in November 1956, the new state of Telangana was born at the stroke of midnight.
Telugu will now enjoy a unique privilege of being the language of two states � Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh, thus becoming the only language apart from Hindi to be the dominant language in more than one state.
Telangana is the first state to be created in 14 years after Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand were carved out of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh during the NDA�s rule at the Centre in 2000.
Sixty-year-old Rao, who quit the Telugu Desam Party and floated the Telangana Rashtra Samiti in 2001 to champion the cause of separate statehood, was sworn in as Chief Minister by Governor ESL Narasimhan. His son KT Rama Rao, nephew T Harish Rao and nine others were also sworn in as ministers.
Rao�s daughter K Kavitha was elected to the Lok Sabha from Nizamabad in Telangana in the recent elections.
The others who were sworn in as ministers were � Mohammed Mahmood Ali, T Rajaiah, Nayani Narasimha Reddy, Eatela Rajender, Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy, T Padma Rao, P Mahender Reddy, Jogu Ramanna and G Jagadish Reddy.
Earlier, Narasimhan, who was appointed Governor of both the states, was administered the oath of office by Andhra Pradesh High Court Chief Justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta.
There were overnight celebrations to herald the birth of the new state when crackers were burst and fireworks lit the night sky.
Soon after taking oath, Rao, popularly called KCR, vowed to root out �political corruption� and establish transparency in governance.
