Questions loom large over Hyd's future

Hyderabad, a bustling city of over 80 lakh people, has been a bone of contention between supporters and opponents of Telangana.

Despite being part of the Telangana region, Hyderabad over the years has acquired the sobriquet “mini India” as it continues to attract people from all parts of the country, especially from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra regions whose migrants constitute 40 per cent of the city’s population.

While pro-Telangana parties have made it clear that they will never settle for anything short of a separate state with Hyderabad as its capital, integrationists believe that the other two regions, jointly referred as “Seemandhra,” have equal stakes in the city.

There are fears in some quarters that the city, which is fourth in the country in terms of software exports, might lose much of its sheen after the bifurcation.

Indeed, concern over Hyderabad’s future status has been shared by people of all the three regions.

Seemandhra settlers fear for the security of their investments in the city if it were to remain the capital of the new state, but making it a common capital also throws up massive administrative challenges.

Questions are also raised over plans to make the city a Union territory, which is met with opposition across the political spectrum, as the revenues would fill the Central government’s coffer instead of fuelling development work in the newly formed states. The city generates 55 per cent of the state’s revenues, while the Hyderabad metropolitan area contributes 65 per cent of the income to the centre.

In all, Hyderabad contributes Rs 40,000 crore to state taxes, Rs 35,000 crore to the Central taxes and Rs 15,000 crore to the local exchequer. The total yield comes to Rs 90,000 crore.

Similarly, exports from Hyderabad metropolitan region gross Rs 90,000 crore per annum, including information technology (IT) and IT  enabled services (ITES) exports of Rs 60,000 crore.