The Centre on Wednesday constituted a five-member expert committee headed by former Supreme Court judge BN Srikrishna on the Telangana statehood issue. A home ministry spokesman said the terms and references were being drafted and would be finalised in consultation with the committee chairman and announced shortly.

The other members of the committee are Ranbir Singh, vice-chancellor, National Law University, Delhi; Abusaleh Shariff, senior research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, Delhi; Ravinder Kaur, professor, department of humanities and social sciences, IIT, Delhi; and Vinod K Duggal, former home secretary, who will also function as its member secretary.

In Hyderabad, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which has been spearheading the separate statehood movement, said it would wait for the terms of reference of the committee before giving its views.

?We are waiting for the terms of reference of the committee to know if it is in furtherance to the December 9 statement made by home minister P Chidambaram. (If it is so), then we can look forward to it. If it is a step back to explore whether to give Telangana or not then we will not be happy with it. We have been demanding a committee for the formation of Telangana within a timeframe,? said K T Rama Rao, TRS MLA and party president K Chandrasekhar Rao?s son.

The opposition Telugu Desam Party and Praja Rajyam Party said there was no constitutional sanctity to the committee constituted by the Centre.

?It is a conspiracy by Union home minister P Chidambaram and law minister M Veerappa Moily to disintegrate Andhra Pradesh, the largest state in south India. The committee has no sanctity as it has no approval of the Union Cabinet,? PRP political affairs committee member Kotagiri Vidyadhara Rao told reporters.

?When a committee is being constituted to decide on the bifurcation of a state, how can it be done without the approval of the Union Cabinet? Moreover, it is improper to constitute a committee for Andhra Pradesh alone when there are demands for separate states in 14 regions of the country,? he said. TDP leader and former minister Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy said constitution of a committee to look into Andhra Pradesh issues was raising doubts when there were demands for creation of 14 other states.