December 31, 2009

The Sinking Andhra



Dharna, Hunger Strike, Damage, 144 Section, Bandh, Raastha Roko, Resignation…….these are the words being heard very frequently in Andhra Pradesh since few weeks. After 53 years of successful united Andhra Pradesh, a sudden lapse cropped in every metro, every city, village and finally in every telugu heart. “Seperation” lead to the disturbance, the pause and mega destroy!!

After a 30 year pause…….The movement of a separate state recapitulated again in 2001 with the formation of TRS.

8 Year saga of TRS in brief


K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) was a member of the Telugu Desam Party until he quit the party and formed the TRS in 2001 at Hyderabad. He quit the Membership of AP Legislative Assembly and the post of Deputy Speaker of AP Legislature while floating the Party.

In the 2004 assembly elections, the TRS formed an alliance with Congress and won 26 state assembly seats and 5 parliament seats at the national level. It joined the governments at both state and central level. Anyways that’s all past…

TRS lost in major constituencies it has contested in the recent 2009 Elections, winning just 10 assembly and 2 parliament. After a major defeat, it kept silent. The first 3 months….in search of reasons, followed by Dr Rajasekhara Reddy’s death and later with Floods. After a choky silence, KCR started hunger fast. The later aspects were known to all, Which need not be mentioned nor discussed here, coz every one was aware of daily episodes and how our state was into boil.

So, the point of explaining the story is, to enlighten everyone on this issue to some extent. But, upon all these , does it lead to development??

What we as Telugu People?

If Present and Future scenarios are accounted……If ”Delhi” is to give and “Andhra” is to receive, what we are up to as telugu people !! because the issue of telangana, according to many knowledgeable people, should be decided by people and not in 10, Janpath or at 7, Race course Road.

Certainly there are problems in Telangana since years. But, a separate telangana wouldn't lead to the automatic arrival of a new generation of doers. Rather, It wouldn't lead to any wonderful growth in new investments in industry or the services. What it does for the rural economy would be marginal because agriculture is set to lose more.

Like in many others, it has been projected that a separate Telangana will fetch more water to the farmers in the region and, hence, people prosper in the region. But, irrigation projects have become extremely complex in the present era with issues like environment, displacement of people (especially tribals), rehabilitation, resettlement, compensation etc. The separatists often business those from other regions to be shrewd, dominating and successful lobbyists. But even these attributes could not help them in making Polavaram a reality.

If facts are measured, the families, lifestyles, crop cycles, credit facilities, past, present, future etc. of farmers were completely different from a Telangana farmer to a Andhra farmer. The problems faced by them had little to do with water and more with other issues like increasing balkanization of farmlands, salinity of soil, raising prices of agricultural inputs etc. Since, most of them have to endure months at a stretch without seeing a single rupee of income, they just can’t wait for remunerative prices to arrive. A farmer cant predict the future, he doesn’t know the margin he gets when the rations/material sent to the godowns/cold storages. There, it all depends on agents. The ultimate profit maker is an agent or the miller. Nothing remains for the poor farmer except a satisfaction that the food goes into many human. There are many agents who earn Rs 35-40 lakhs a year. Now, consider this. A person makes Rs 35-40 lakhs a year, without having even an office. He does not have to bear the vagaries of nature. He does not suffer from risk of pests. No Logistics crises .Most importantly, he does not have to wait for six to nine months. This man does not have an identity, unless the UID cards give him one. Some have registrations. But many don’t. They don’t file their returns of income. There are thousands of such faceless agents who thrive on the sweat, blood and misery of the farmer. The Government has framed every possible law and rule to protect/toss the farmer. Including, the compensation given to a farmer, citing reasons resulted his death. But farmer is in such desperation for money that he would be more eager to cooperate with any deviation if he assured of instant cash.

Due to heavy drought in 1997, thousands of farmers ended up their lives in mahabubnagar district. This resulted in migration of lakhs of palamur labour to various places for employment. The then TDP government had a smaller vision on 1997 migration and greater vision named “Vision 2020” on Hyderabad didn’t solve their problem. With the change of seats in 2004 both at the centre and the state and a merger of TRS with congress, it bagged the two portfolios which directly deal with fate of poor and downtrodden, Labour Ministry and Rural Development Ministry. But, the TRS found their seats were pretty comfortable rather than looking at the comfort of the poor in their districts.

If it is not Irrigation, it should be Industrialization and subsequent development. Neighbouring Tamil Nadu had developed Coimbatore, Tirupur and Karur as the major Textile hub’s in India with a turnover of Rs 50,000 million and employing 7,50,000 people.  It has Automobile and Telecommunication manufacturing units with as many as 20 automotive manufacturers and assemblers and global telecommunications giants like Nokia, Flextronics, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson, Foxconn, Samsung, Cisco, Moser Baer and Dell, who had chosen Chennai as their base in South India……..creating ample of opportunities for their people.

While In Andhra Pradesh, the government run “APCO” suffering due to lack of funds, planning to shut 1200 outlets in the state.

Some Controversial Facts:

Pro Telangana:
People from Telangana region pay more taxes (Through more Alcohol consumption) than Andhra but the claim is that these are being used for the development of Andhra regions. It if were a separate state it can use all the money from the region for its own development.

No Telangana:
Isn’t it a fact that every part of the state needs resources for its own development? As most parts of Andhra have good lands they generate more money and this can be shared if not equally. There are no big movements after 1969 unless the political parties bring it up.

Rivers flowing in Telagana region, but Deccan plateau is at some height and water can not flow to sloppy region. Most of terrain in Telagana is rocky and not useful for agricultural purpose.

Fact : Unfortunately, the Nizams ran a military-feudal system, focused on revenue collection rather than mass education and development. Soon, the economic and cultural gap between the two peoples was enormous.

The Future Prediction : The formation of Telangana will be on roll, which might take 2-3 years. The 2014 Elections will be on the move and political parties have a race with one most important agenda in common…..” It is our party who fought enormously and achieved Telangana….Please vote for us”.

“But, is growth possible this way??”

Note: This article may have little discrepancies from the real facts unintentionally. Corrections are always welcome. This article tried to be neutral as an issue always has two stories.


Thanks,
Regards,
Srujan.

2 comments:

Uday said...

Hi Srujan, I appreciate the way you presented couple of Facts.
But few corrections are, you told land is not worth. At the same time, there are other resources, which you can consider (eg : Coal). Coming to Economical strength, its not becoz of Nizam's Taxes... Telangana is Industrially developed before merger. Lots of Industries like Nizam Sugars, Azam Jahi Mills... are the top Industries in India.
In water/agriculture, not all the parts of Telangana lands are useless. If you observe, TOP Rice producing district in AP is from Telangana, i.e Karimnagar. How it is possible? People are using Bore WELLS. Though its a Deccan land, we can make in beautiful irrigation planning for projects. As its not 19th century to follow default path of a River. We can use reservoirs, Interlinking rivers... Similar to this case., in Education, we were pushed back in FUNDS. In jobs, None of the rule is followed.

Coming to future leadership, in Andhra ruling or entire India... None of the Leader is perfect. So we can get couple of benefits, which we obviously gets.

and as you are interested in facts., pls visit http://www.telangana.org/TelanganaFAQ.asp for more details.

Uday said...

And Srujan... there are couple of other resources, wer professionals are gathering info of History "what happened?"
please go through this link.
http://missiontelangana.com/?p=1777