JOIN USThe odds of consummating Telangana dream
The long cherished dream of the people of Telangana has come true, with the announcement of creation of a separate state comprising 10 districts from the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), that too with IT hub Hyderabad as its capital. But the decision on Telangana statehood, believed to be for electoral gains in the 2014 parliament elections despite opposition from people of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, together known as Seemandhra, will trigger critical issues that need to be addressed.
The Seemandhra leaders might say that the high command has assured justice in water sharing, education and employment opportunities, and most important of all funding. But none of these assurances were put on record when the Congress Working Committee (CWC) spokesperson announced bifurcation of AP into two states. “We had told Seemandhra leaders of our decision on July 12 itself. You should not blame us if your leaders did not convey the same to you,” was the retort of Digvijay Singh to a Seemandhra MP, who met him after the CWC declaration and wanted to influence Sonia Gandhi to reconsider the decision.
What the Seemandhra leaders have now conveyed to the party rank and file is an enigma. But the ferocity with which the Samaikhya Andhra cadres are now attacking the statues of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi is an indication of the skewed message that must have reached them or the passing the buck strategy of the local leaders.
Any solutions?
The Opposition YSR Congress and TDP leaders, and also Congress leaders from the Seemandhra region have often voiced their apprehensions about a number of issues which need to be addressed before formation of Telangana state. “Successive Commissions, including the Srikrishna Commission, have recorded their concerns on these issues, forcing the governments to put the demand for Telangana on the back burner,” says Gade Venkat Reddy, senior congress leader.
While legal hurdles are to be resolved with necessary amendments to several legislation in the Assembly, and through executive orders of the Governor and administration, can the emotional issues be thrashed out easily? Foremost, is the issue of sharing of river waters. During the TDP and the YSR regimes for last 20 years, several irrigation and water works were taken up on the Godavari and Krishna rivers for better use of the water going waste into the sea. At least on five of the projects, thousands of crores of rupees have been spent without even the sanction of the Central Water Commission. Now, the Telangana leaders could oppose the release of water from the rivers and also raise the bogie of Telangana share, leading to drying up of the Godavari delta which produced paddy during three crop seasons a year .
“How can you address the river water issue?” questions M V Mysoora Reddy, YSRC legislator-spokesman and an authority on river water sharing issues. Projects like Telugu Ganga, Handri–Neeva, Galeru-Nagari and Veligonda have no water allocations and any friction would render 22.5 lakh acres in Rayalaseema dry and barren. Senior TDP legislator Somireddy Chandramohana Reddy says that even the Krishna and Godavari delta regions in Krishna, Guntur, East and West Godavari districts will now have to depend on the whims and fancies of Telangana state.
High stakes
In the realm of education, Seemandhra educationists have promoted corporate schools and colleges after the TDP opened up education sector for privatisation. Many big names like Narayana, GITAM, Chaitanya, and Gautami have hundreds of schools and colleges in Telangana and other regions. During the 2010-11 pro-Telangana agitations, many of them were attacked and also had to stop functioning under threat from T-Joint Action Committee (T-JAC) and Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). “A huge investment of Rs 15,000 crore has gone into promoting infrastructure like huge campuses, residential schools and corporate colleges. We do not know what to do with the massive infrastructure,” says a spokesman of the associations of private educational institutions.
Majority of small and medium scale industrialists and also major industrial groups functioning with Hyderabad as their base are all from Seemandhra region. For instance, groups like GMR, Nagarjuna, GVK, Lanco, and Satyam are all non-Telangana.
Both in 2010 and 2011, there were reports that agitators had scared away youth from other regions who came for interviews in the public sector companies like the BHEL. “Seemandhra leaders have made as high an investment as Rs 5 lakh crore in the region,“ says Harischandra Prasad, a former CII president.
Next comes the real estate slump anticipated after T formation. Telangana state agitation had in 2010 and 2011 led to a huge nosediving of real estate prices. Though there was a resurrection in 2012 and 2013, the T slump has again hit the state capital since last Tuesday.
Coveted government jobs in Telangana have always been the bone of contention between employees’ unions of Telangana and Seemandhra. In fact there are two separate employees’ bodies to protect the interests of employees from these regions and are always warring over share in key posts and also transfers.
Although the jobs and transfers are guarded by the presidential order of 1968 and also the GO 610, its implementation is very tardy. T NGOs claim that employees from Andhra were given migration for appointments to key posts. However, AP NGOs’ leadership question, ‘How can we do that with the presidential order forbidding zonal transfers?”
Other burning issues that will plague Telangana formation is sharing of minerals, particularly coal and iron ore, bauxite and limestone; sharing of power generation with all hydel power plants in Seemandhra and a few thermal plants in Telangana region. But Telangana has all the coal deposits in Singareni which could starve the thermal plants at Vijayawada, Nellore, and Rayalaseema.
Sum up
Amit Jain, a wholesale trader of pulses in Begum Bazaar in old city of Hyderabad had a solution: “One needs Telangana for edible oil, pulses, cotton, lubricants, corporate hospitals and other essential commodities, besides liquor. Same way, Telangana depends on Seemandhra for rice, tobacco, coconut, vegetables, hydel power, fish, chicken and gas. All along nobody bothered about these issues. Now, there will be permits and taxes on movement of these goods leading to spiralling cost of living, which is already at bursting point”.
What he means in other words is that both regions have to co-exist even after bifurcation for survival. The two sets of courts, secretariats, governments, cabinets and also services will just be ornamental as two windows in a single home. Only time and pace of development in coming days and years will prove Jain right or wrong.
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