Andhra and Telangana – Time for development and not recriminations and accusations

Now that the decision for split of the state of Andhra Pradesh has been taken by the Indian Parliament, it is the time for politicians of both states and more particularly those from the rump state of Andhra Pradesh minus Telangana to start thinking constructively and try to make plans for development instead of crying over the spilt milk. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Still politicians are accusing each other like the classic case of Jagan Mohan Reddy and Chandra Babu Naidu that the other is responsible for the current state of affairs. Why I said the classic case of these two politicians is that, whatever happens the moment one of these conduct a press meet the discussion turns on to accusations against the other politician. This is like the famous story about a boy who knows only about a cow and try to introduce the cow into whatever story he is talking about.

The people and politicians need of the so called Seemandhra needs to concentrate on starting the overall development to avoid the situation they are currently find themselves in future. If you look at the strengths of this state, unlike the Telangana state they have a long coastal line with two developed ports (Kakinada and Visakhapatnam) and two more planned (Krishnapatnam and Kalingapatnam). As most of the districts are along the coast, the new state can concentrate on development of more smaller ports so that the domestic transportation of goods along the coast can be more cheaper compared to the other modes of transport. Also this can provide a lot of employment to the people of those districts.

Most of the district capitals in Seemandhra are better developed compared to those in Telangana as there the development is more concentrated in Hyderabad to the maximum possible extent. This will give an opportunity to the newly formed state a better starting point as well as overall development. Currently there is a big controversy is raging about the location of new capital. In my opinion instead of fighting for a capital, they can concentrate on distributed development with an administrative capital which can satisfy the requirements of the entire state.

1.      Instead of creating a new capital with concentration of all activities at the same like what happened with Hyderabad, they can think of this possibility. There are currently four / five major cities / towns in Seemandhra like Vijayawada-Guntur, Visakhapatnam, Kurnool, Rajahmundry-Kakinada and Nellore. One of them can be made into the administrative capital with one assembly session each at two other locations to provide a better opportunity of development for other locations as well. This is not a new idea. Already in Maharashtra state, one session of the Assembly is conducted in Nagpur.

2.      The headquarters of the departments can be distributed across the state instead of concentration in a single city. Say for examples the departments of fisheries may be located in one of the coastal cities with necessary representation in the administrative capital.

3.      Similarly the high court may be put up in some other city which is not the administrative capital so that this can provide equal representation to all areas.

4.      Another suggestion is to utilize the various sops proposed by the central government in the areas like Rayalaseema and North Andhra to concentrate on development of at least two districts per annum so that by the end of the sops, there will be substantial development.

Similarly in case of Telengana, the development is only concentrated in Hyderabad with many other towns / district capitals like Adilabad, Sangareddy, Khammam etc., not well developed. The agenda for the political parties in Telangana should be on reducing these imbalances.

There are villages in both Telangana and Andhra which still do not have electricity or road facilities. Though there is a substantial increase in educational facilities in Telangana, the literacy rates are still low while most of the districts on Andhra side fare better on this count. There is an urgent need for electrification and provision of road facilities and better education to the coming generations so that the imbalances can be removed in coming years.

Let us hope better sense prevails in the politicians and the people so that the states will not go the way of Jarkhand and will be like Uttarakhand.