A comparative
picture of development that has taken place in different sectors over the last 45 years, highlighting the
imbalances that still persist in the levels of development between different
regions of the state, is given hereunder:
Education:
• The rate of literacy in Telangana is only 55.95%
as against 63.58% in Coastal Andhra, 60.53% in Rayalaseema and 79.04% in the
capital city. It is the lowest rate in the entire country, except in Uttar
Pradesh.
• Enrolment of students at the school level in Telangana
is hardly 32% of the total enrolment in the state while it should be at least
40% to be commensurate with the size of population of the region.
• More than 75% of the expenditure on government and
government-aided colleges is incurred in Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions
put together, where as the Telangana region which is entitled to a share of at
least 40% of the total expenditure gets hardly 25% of it.
• Out of 21 universities and university level
institutions funded either by the state government or the federal government or
self financed, 3 are located in Coastal Andhra, 7 in Rayalaseema, 10 in the
capital city and only one in the entire Telangana region.
Irrigation:
• 68.5% percent of catchment area of river Krishna
is in the Telangana area but this region gets hardly 15% of its waters.
• 80% of assured waters of river Krishna allocated
to the state by the Bachawat Tribunal have been usurped by the Coastal Andhra
region while 90% of its surplus waters, yet to be allocated, are reserved for
the Rayalaseema region, denying the Telangana region of its rightful share.
• Having appropriated a lion's share of Krishna
waters by questionable methods, the powers that be are planning to repeat the
performance in respect of Godavari waters as well. It is happening in spite of
the fact that 79% of catchment area of river Godavari is in the Telangana
region.
• Godavari waters have already been harnessed to
irrigate more than 12 lakh acres in Coastal Andhra while the corresponding
figure for Telangana is hardly 4 lakh acres.
• The proposed Polavaram Project to serve the
already developed Coastal Andhra region is planned to be six times larger than
the proposed Ichampalli Project envisaged for serving the parched fields of
Telangana region.
• The net area under tank irrigation in the region
has declined by 76% between 1956 and 1998.
• The Telangana farmers depend mostly on well
irrigation. As a result, while the farmers of Coastal Andhra get irrigation
facilities at the cost of state's exchequer, the Telangana farmers are forced
to pay from their nose for a similar facility. A steep hike in the power tariff
has further added to their
misery.
Agriculture:
• The net area sown in the Telangana region has
decreased by 21.77% during the period 1956 and 1998, while in the Coastal
Andhra region it has increased by 4.22% during the corresponding period.
• While around 40% of net area sown in the state is
in the Telangana region, the quantum of institutional credit available to the
farmers of this region is far less than what they are entitled to. They get
only 18.19%, 23.41 % and 28.25% of the total credit provided by the District
Cooperative Central Banks (short-term), the A.P. Cooperative Central Bank
(long-term) and the Scheduled Commercial Banks, respectively.
• Inadequacy of institutional credit is forcing the
Telangana farmers to fall into the debt trap laid by the private moneylenders,
leading to a large number of suicides during the last six years.
Industries:
• No major industry worth its name has been set up
in any of the districts of the Telangana region as compared to the
establishment of several industries in Visakapatnam, Vijayawada, Kakinada,
Nellore, Tirupati, and Cuddapah.
• Quite a few major industries established in the
Telangana region during the period of much maligned Nizam are being closed one
after the other by the successive governments. Important among the closed
industries are: Azam Jahi Mills (Warangal), Sir Silk Factory (Sirpur),
Antargaon Spinning Mills (Adilabad), DBR Mills (Hyderabad), Allwyn Factory (Hyderabad). Further, the famous Nizam Sugar
Factory (Nizamabad) is put on sale.
• The Fertiliser Factory at Ramagundam is closed
because of, among other reasons, inadequacy of power supply and poor quality of
coal made available.
• This fertilizer plant is situated in the coal belt
of the region and large quantities of good quality coal available here are
diverted to the other regions for feeding thermal power plants there.
• A national super thermal power plant is situated
in Ramagundam itself and its operation is solely dependent on coal and water
supplied by the Telangana region, ignoring other pressing requirements of the
people of the region.
• These major inputs available locally are,
ironically, not accessible to a locally situated fertilizer plant.
• Coinciding with the decision to close down the
fertilizer plant at Ramagundam a decision is taken to set up a new fertilizer
plant at Nellore in Coastal Andhra.
• The industrial development that has taken place in
and around the capitalcity has not benefited the people of Telangana in any
way.
• The land, water, power and other infrastructure
facilities made available to these industries belong entirely to Telangana; yet
the migrants from other regions grab more than 95% of the jobs offered by these
industries.
• The environmental pollution caused by the
industries in and around Hyderabad is going unchecked because the sufferers are
mostly Telanganites.
Finances:
• The contribution of Telangana region to the
state's exchequer has all along been around 45%. But the expenditure incurred
on the development of this region has never been more than 25%.
• The lower rate of per capita income in the
Telangana region as compared to the other regions enables the state government
to get allocation of funds at a higher rate when devolution of resources is
made by the successive Finance Commissions. But the benefit of such higher
allocation never accrued to the Telangana region.
• More than 80% of loans taken from the World Bank
and other international and national agencies are being spent for the
development of Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema. But the burden of repayment of
these loans and interest on them is being borne by
the people ofTelangana also, at least to the extent of 40 to 45%.
• A cumulative effect of these and similar factors,
over the years, has been diversion of thousands of crores of rupees meant for
the development of Telangana region, for the development of other regions.
Employment
:
• There are about 15 1akh jobs in the government and
government-funded offices and establishments. Based on the size of population
at least 40% of these jobs, i.e. 6 lakh, should have been filled in by the job
seekers from Telangana. But the total number of jobs now occupied by them is
less than 2 lakh.
• The state government issued orders -the much
publicized G.O. 610 -as back as in the year 1985 to remove all the non-locals
appointed against the vacancies meant for the youth of Telangana and to appoint
only Telangana locals against all resultant vacancies. Besides not implementing
these orders further recruitment of non-locals in the Telangana region is going
on.
The
Capital City :
• The imposition of Six Point Formula has deprived
the people of Telangana,among other things, of their legitimate rights on the
facilities developed in the capital city by their forefathers over a period of
four hundred years
• The facilities available in the capital city are
now more accessible to the people migrating from Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema
regions and more inaccessible to the people of Telangana. In this process
non-locals have become locals and the locals have become non-locals.
• The development-taking place in and around the
capital city cannot be an indicator of development of Telangana region as
mostly the settlers and migrants from the other regions of the state reap its
fruits.
• Construction of flyovers, widening of roads,
development of Hi- Tech cities etc., will not address the serious problems
confronting the people in the other nine districts of Telangana. Cholera deaths
in Adilabad, spread of malaria in the tribal belt, suicides by farmers in
Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam, eternal famine conditions in Mahabubnagar,
flurosis in Nalgonda, fall of ayacut under Nizamsagar, pollution in Ranga Reddy
and Medak and so on need to be attended to on a priority basis. But they never
get the attention they deserve.
• The film industry that has flourished in the
capital city because of innumerable concessions given to it in terms of
allocation of land, water, electricity etc., depriving the common man of
Telangana of these facilities, is solely controlled by the Andhra migrants. The
film industry monopolized by the Andhras does not allow Telangana talent to
flourish and the industry also indulges in a sustained campaign of making fun
of linguistics and cultural variations of this region.
• The near monopoly control enjoyed by the Andhra
settlers on real estate transactions and land speculation in and around
Hyderabad and Secunderabad has already spread to a radius of nearly 100
kilometres around the capital city resulting in the displacement of thousands
of poor
farmers and farm workers of the local areas.
• The identity of Telangana reflecting itself in its
history, culture, language, polity etc. is fast getting eroded because of the
Andhra onslaughts.
Examples: erecting the statues of only Andhra leader
like N.T, Rama Rao, Kasu Brahmananda Reddy, Damodaram Sanjeevaiah, Puchalapalli
Sundaraiah including those who never had anything to do with Hyderabad or
Telangana, or even Andhra Pradesh for that matter, like Tanguturi Prakasam,
Potti Sri Ramulu, Alluri Sitarama Raju, TripuraneniRamaswamy Chowdary,
Raghupati Venkataratnam Naidu etc; re- christening places and institutions as
Sanjeeva Reddy Nagar, Vengal Rao Nagar, Potti Sri Ramulu Nagar, Sanjeevaiah
Park, Brahmananda Reddy Park, Sundaraiah Park, NTR. Ghat, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy
Sagar, Potti Sri Ramulu Telugu University, N.G. Ranga Agricultural University,
Kaleshwar Rao Bhavan; naming structures after Balayogi, Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy
and so on. The ruling classes totally ignore the Telangana stalwarts like
Burgula Rama Krishna Rao, K. V. Ranga Reddy, Dasarathi Krishnamacharya,
Vattikota Alwar Swamy, Komuram Bhim, Ravi Narayana Reddy, Shoebulla Khan,
Baddam Yella Reddy, Arutla Kamala Devi, Kaloji Narayan Rao and a host of
others.
There
are No Alternatives other than Separate Telangana because All possible
alternatives have already been experimented with –The Gentlemen's Agreement,
The All Party Accord, The Eight Point Formula, The Five Point Formula, The Six
Point Formula and what not? Were they not experiments to safeguard the
interests of Telangana within the integrated state of Andhra Pradesh? Have any
of these agreements been implemented? Have any of these solemn pledges been
redeemed? Have any of the judicial pronouncements including the verdict of
Supreme Court of India been honored? Now what else is left to be further
experimented with?
Comments
Post a Comment