Facts behind the demand for a separate TELANGANA

(Courtesy: http://ja-jp.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=102527030797&topic=12439)


Whenever the topic of Telangana is raised, many of us blindly support Andhra or Telangana based on where we come from. Not sure how many really think of why the demand for separate state has been there for such a long time. The 2 major reasons why the demand has been pending for so many years is WATER AND HYDERBAD. People around the state have earned and invested in and around Hyderabad so there is a concerns about the safety of the investment if the state is separated while both the major rivers in our state flow mostly through Telangana. Below are some facts that are few reasons for the demand. Sentiments can be foolish but not facts.



§ There are 10 districts in Telangana, 9 in Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema. Out of these 7 districts in Telangana, 3 in Andhra and 1 in Rayalaseema are considered severely backward districts which means 70% of districts in Telangana are backward while in Andhra it is 35% and in Rayalaseema it is 25%. Apart from these there are some areas in all parts of the state which are also backward.

§ 45% of the state income comes from Telangana region. When it comes to utilization of funds, the share of Telangana is only 28%.

§ Normally canals are dug to supply water to the crops from rivers for cultivation. The amount of land cultivated through canals in just Guntur district is more than the land cultivated with canals in entire Telangana region.

§ Nagarjuna sagar dam is built in Nalgonda district which is in Telangana but majority of the water from the dam is used for Krishna and Guntur district. The original dam was supposed to be build much ahead of its present location but the location was changed so that it falls in the Telangana region. Due to the construction of the dam several hectares of Lime stone mines vanished as part of the dam back waters. Everyone know
that lime stone is used for producing cement. Even the natural resources were not allowed to remain.

§ Fluorinated water problem is only in Nalgonda district which has not been resolved since decades.

§ Two major rivers Krishna and Tungabhadra enter the state of AP in the district of Mahaboobnagar(the biggest district in Telangana) but the district always remains the worst draught hit areas along with Anantapur because there is no project and process with which the water can be utilized. The plans for utilization has been pending for decades.

§ RDS (Rajolibanda Diversion Scheme) is build in Mahaboobnagar to provide water to 85000 hectares of land in the district. The leaders of Rayalaseems blasted the gates of RDS and water is supplied to KC (Kurnool-Cudapah) canal while only remaining water, if any, is supplied to the lands in Mahaboobnagar.

§ 3 TMC of water from Gandipet is sufficient to supply drinking water to our city. Every year 1700 TMC of water is wasted and is flown into Bay of Bengal from river Godavari. Starting from Nizambad to Bay of Bengal there is no project allowed to build on Godavari. If it is built leaders in Godavari districts fear that the fertile lands in the area may fall short of water. If the Godavari water is utilized properly, there will be no scarcity for food grains in our state.

§ In Telangana regions, only few areas cultivate one crop a year and very rarely two crops a year while most of the land doesn't even cultivate single crop. In both the Godavari districts, Krishna and Guntur district, two crops a year is common and there are times where even 3 crops a year are cultivated. The only reason is WATER.

§ Government issue G.O.'s for implicating its decisions. G.O number 610 is the longest non implicated G.O in the history of AP. The G.O was issued in 1986 by late NTR who was then the CM of AP, which is not yet implicated. The G.O speaks about the share of Telangana employees in Government jobs in Telangana
region.

§ 33% of the population in Mahaboobnagar district have left the district for livelihood to different parts of the state due to draught and majority of them are working as daily labour. No other district has so many people who fled the home place due to lack of livelihood and working as daily labour.

§ There are 25 plus government degree colleges in Krishna, Kadapa and Guntur district while there is not even a single government degree college in Ranga Reddy district.

§ Dairy development corporation of AP purchases milk from farmers across the state for distribution. For the same milk, in Andhra, the government pay Rs. 24 to the farmers and in Telangana they pay Rs. 22 per litre. Partiality is shown even in milk

§ In between 2005-2008 government sold lands worth Rs. 20000 crores in and around Hyderabad which was utilized to build projects in Rayalaseema and Andhra.

§ Not even a single project was completed in Telangana in the last 5 years while several projects were completed in Andhra and Rayalaseema.

Not just Telangana but areas of Northern Andhra, Prakasham and parts of Rayalaseema are still backward. The state needs to progress as a unit.

People are suffering across the state and they need a solution.

Nobody wants a split in the state but when the people of one region are constantly humiliated and denied of what they should be getting, such demands keep coming. Let us show maturity in understanding social problems keeping aside the sentiments.

LOST BUT NOT LEAST.

ON TELANGAANA FIGHT...

Telangaana is not just for Development its Matter of Self Esteem ....Its Matter of Securing Common Rights...

The People who are from non Telanganites who dont like the people of Telangaana ,Telangaana Launguage , Telangaana Accent , Telangaana Leadership,Telangaana Samskruthi but why they are sticking with Telangaana Because ....Most of the non Telanganite Leaders as well Contractors currently they are Grabbing Lands and other Resources as much as they can sarounding of HYDERABAD. If Telangaana comes thats not Possible thats the reason they are opposing telangaana but not Unity of Telugu people.

Cries of dry earth in MAHABOOBNAGAR

(Courtesy: http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/00may08/national.htm#3)

MAHABOOBNAGAR As searing heat wave sweeps across the sun-burnt fields, the cries of frail-looking naaramma pierce through the mournful silence of the village.

Sitting desolately at the corner of panchayat office in Kappeta village, the 70-year old agriculture labourer mourns the death of hope as her only son has abandoned her and migrated in search of an elusive job.

The warm words of a local official promising to include her in the old age pension scheme (Rs 75 per month) fail to enthuse her as she prefers death to the life filled with misery and desolation.

A motley crowd, gathered around her, recount how their village was facing unprecented drought with all the six bore wells going dry and entire crop damaged.

With no water and food, the villagers are looking up to the Government for help.

The story of Kappeta sums up the human suffering in the worst-affected Mahaboobnagar district of Andhra Pradesh where all the 64 mandals have been declared drought-hit and majority of water resources have dried up.

Village after village, dotting the vast stretch of dry land, present gory tales of deprivation, suicides by debt-burdened farmers and desperate cries for water, food and work. This perennially drought-prone district is known for its hardworking labour, mostly employed in the construction industry across the country.

With ground water table falling to an unprecedented low levels and no hope of good crop, over five lakh people are estimated to have migrated from this region during the current season.

Reeling under worst-ever dry spell, Mahaboobnagar now symbolises a life that is in perennial migration, seeking to escape from miserable existence wrought by nature's fury and human callousness.

Barely 10 kms away from Jadcherla town on the Hyderabad-Bangalore highway, gangapuram village stands shattered by the suicide deaths of five farmers who were driven to the extreme step unable to clear the debts from local money lenders.

A grieving Savithramma, the widow of a small farmer Sivaiah, says she was finding it extremely difficult to get on with the life.

My husband had borrowed Rs 40,000 from money lenders and ended his life in a fit of frustration. The monely lenders are now after me to clear the debt. How can I manage? Asked Savithramma with tears in her eyes.

It was the same trauma for Ramanamma ever since her husband, Seethareddy took his own life, unable to come to terms with the crop loss and mounting debts.

We had to sell off five acre land to partly clear the Rs two lakh loan that we had borrowed to raise the crop. But within a week of seeling our land, my husband committed suicide leaving us in the lurch, said Ramanamma who has a school-going son.

The villagers complained about lack of water, food and fodder. We have no work to do. All the crops are damaged. Nobody is coming to our rescue, said a village youth V Madhu Babu, seething in anger over callousness of the local administration despite receiving early warnings of an impending drought. (PTI)

Telangana: inevitable and desirable

(Here is an  article by a BJP legislator G. Kishan Reddy. He is the floor leader of the BJP in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. The data and statistical inputs in this article are from Yudofud Public Strategies, www.yudofud.com.)  

From : http://beta.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article80961.ece

In the winter of 1953, the Fazal Ali Commission was set up to reorganise the States of the Indian Republic. Its recommendation to go about creating States on linguistic lines, indirectly paved the way for the creation of Andhra Pradesh. Andhra was formed from the northern districts of the erstwhile Madras state and the southern districts of the erstwhile Hyderabad state -- though the committee itself did not advocate such a merger and was against it.

Fifty-six winters later, the very concept of the creation of States based on linguistic lines has become passé. We need to look for fresh parameters for the creation of States, and that has to be based on holistic development on economic and social lines for better administration and management. This fact has been proven with the creation of Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand from Bihar and Uttaranchal from Uttar Pradesh.

Two issues that seem to be at the centre of the contention between the two regions of Andhra Pradesh is the future of Hyderabad and the repercussions in terms of the sharing of river waters from the completed and planned irrigation projects after the division of the State. Any entity, political or otherwise, that is able to find pragmatic solutions to this conundrum would not only earn the respect of the people of the State but also help set a precedent in the matter of contentious State divisions in the future.

Economics of small States

The case for small States can be argued with two parameters of macroeconomic statistics from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The first parameter is the percentage increase in Gross Domestic Product for States between 1999-2000, when the smaller States were created, and 2007-2008. India's overall GDP increased by 75 per cent during this time period. During the same period, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal recorded more than 100 per cent, 150 per cent and 180 per cent increase respectively. These rates were much above the rate at which national GDP increased. This clearly indicates that the recent creation of smaller States was a step in the right direction.

Experts have often argued that the creation of smaller States has been at the expense of the States they were created from. For all its lack of governance, Uttar Pradesh grew by more than 21 per cent of the national average during this time period.

The second parameter, the percentage contribution of States to national GDP, helps negate the myth of smaller States growing at the expense of the States they are created from. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh each contributed the same amount to national GDP. While the contributions of Bihar and Madhya Pradesh increased by 0.01 per cent and 0.06 per cent respectively, Uttar Pradesh's contribution to national GDP increased by 1.2 per cent during the same time period. This is more than Chhattisgarh's percentage increase in the contribution of 0.64 per cent to national GDP, the highest increase among the three newly created smaller States.

Capital politics

Hyderabad is an integral part of Telangana and a Telangana State without Hyderabad as the capital is inconceivable. However, the militant rhetoric of some political parties has made people of other areas feel unwelcome, creating an air of mistrust among the Telugu-speaking people of various regions. This is not only constitutionally illegal but also extremely foolish as it affects the image of Brand Hyderabad. Everybody who has come to Hyderabad in search of a better quality of life must be protected. Rhetorical slogans such as Telangana waalon jaago, Andhra waalon bhago gives the impression of an exclusionist movement that forces people of the non-Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh out of Hyderabad rather than a movement where the people of Telangana want greater autonomy for their region. Significantly, when Maharashtra and Gujarat were created from the then Bombay state on the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission, there was fear about Mumbai losing its importance as a financial nerve-centre as a lot of investment in Mumbai had been made by Gujarati business people. The creation of two separate States did not halt Mumbai's rapid development. In fact, it additionally paved the way for the development of Ahmedabad and Surat as alternative financial centres. Hyderabad can emulate the same model. As in the past 400 years, the city can continue to welcome people with open arms rather than close its gates to fresh talent and creative ideas.

The people of the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions feel that the benefits reaped from Hyderabad must be accessible to all those who have been equal stakeholders in the city's development. The solution to this is not alternative models such as according Hyderabad the status of a Union Territory or making Hyderabad a joint capital for the States carved out of present-day Andhra Pradesh. These solutions are just not practical. A better approach would be to plan a special financial package for the development of a new State capital for the non-Telangana region. Pragmatism would dictate that the special package be funded through some form of cess on the city of Hyderabad for a limited period rather than running to large financial institutions for loans, as has been proposed by some political entities.

Social dynamics of water

About 70 per cent of the catchment area of the Krishna and close to 80 per cent of the catchment area of the Godavari is located in the Telangana region. Across the world, water distribution and sharing schemes between two areas is calculated on the basis of the percentage of the catchment area that lies in the region. Other factors that influence water-sharing accords is the population of a given region, the projected usage of water for industry and the domestic population, and the physical contours of the region through which the river flows.

Take the instance of the Godavari, where the areas planned for large dams in the Telangana have not been found feasible for various reasons. As the Sriramsagar project on the Godavari already exists, it is not feasible to build another large dam on the Godavari until after the Pranahitha tributary joins the Godavari. There is not enough water to be harnessed on a continuous basis for the project to be economically feasible if the dam is built before the Pranahitha joins the main river. The Inchampally project, a national project whose benefits are to be shared between the States of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, was one such large project that was proposed. Though the project was conceived a long time ago, it has run into typical issues that are usually associated with projects that have multiple States as stakeholders. Though Andhra Pradesh, by large, is the main beneficiary of the project, the project plan estimates more forest land being submerged in Maharashtra (47.7 per cent) than in Andhra Pradesh (29.9 per cent; all land in Telangana). An equal amount of cultivable land will be submerged in Chhattisgarh (41.8 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (42.2 per cent; all land in Telangana). And, more villages that belong to Maharashtra (100) will be submerged as compared to Andhra Pradesh (65). This has obviously made the other States reluctant to move as quickly as Andhra Pradesh on this project.

The link canal that has been planned between Inchampally and Nagarjuna Sagar that is proposed to irrigate the regions of Telangana in between also involves prohibitive costs as a result of the 107-metre lift that is required for the water to reach the Nagarjuna Sagar. The lift itself will require a separate hydro-electric power project for the project to be feasible. Commonsense and pragmatism would have ensured that a project in Kanthamapalli or Kaleswaram be pursued. Additionally, three smaller step- dams between Yellampalli and Sriramsagar must be devised with a realistic State-level river-interlinking plan. Inchampally is not an exception, but the trend in how political leaders across the aisle in Telangana have been caught up in the big-projects-to-line-my-pockets mentality at the cost of the development of the region by looking at smaller, realistic projects to execute.

The finale

The Telangana agitation is the only such movement in India that involves a capital city located in the region that is fighting for separation from the main State. This clearly reflects on the lack of governance and civic administration in this area as the benefits of having a State capital in the hinterland have not trickled down to other areas in that region.

Smaller States still need a good and vibrant administration to be recipes for success. Chhattisgarh is a fine example of how an effective administration could turn around a State in all aspects of development. The development that has happened in the Chhattisgarh region from Independence till 2000 has in fact been less than the development that has taken place from the time a new State was created in 2000 till now. The first Telangana Chief Minister would have done a great service to the infant State should he take a prescription from Chhattisgarh's most famous Ayurvedic doctor.