Andhra and Telangana - One Year Report Card
- In Politics
- 08:52 PM, Aug 06, 2015
- Shashank Davanagere
There comes a point in time in one’s life when it is beneficial to look back at the progress made and do any course correction, if necessary, or to pat oneself on the back for the achievements. What is true for people is true for societies and states as well. In many cases, one year is not enough for a fair appraisal but as the saying goes all you need to see is one grain of rice to know if it is cooked. It's been just over a year since erstwhile state of Andhra Pradesh was split. Two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State that were carved out of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh are now ruled by two different parties, two different ideologies, and two Chief Ministers who have completely different relationship with the Center. This article is an attempt to see what the two newly formed States got right and where improvement can be made.
Only thing present Andhra Pradesh got from the division of erstwhile Andhra is its name. Telangana State has a good 10-15 year advantage over AP because of the commercial city of Hyderabad and the advantages it brought to the table. Given this premise, let's see how the two states progressed. [I am not being biased but since Andhra Pradesh started from the scratch, there is a lot of ground to cover in the progress of Andhra hence the article has more information about AP than TS. First part of this two part series will cover Telangana only].
Agriculture:-
Things that Telangana State (TS) got right:
1. Waiver of crop loans worth Rs 35,000 crore covering 36 lakh farmers [3]
2. Telangana Drinking Water Project - which proposes to provide clean drinking water (100 liters in rural & 150 liters in urban) to about 25000 rural habitations and 67 urban habitations in TS. A total of 34 TMC of water from Godavari River and 21.5 TMC from Krishna River would be utilized for the water grid. [7,4].
3. A mega goal of reviving tanks across the state under the name of Mission Kakatiya with a budget of Rs 2083 crores was announced in the budget for 2014-2015. Under this plan a total of 9308 tanks were identified to be revived. This is apart from the 8500 crores allocated for large, medium and small irrigation projects for the year. [7,4].
Things that Telangana State (TS ) got wrong:
1. The same waiver which KCR promised prior to elections got a rider that only those loans disbursed during 2013-2014 will be eligible. This resulted in backlash and the continuing suicide of farmers in TS is not helping either [so far about 700 farmers have committed suicide in TS in 2015]. [5,9].
2. Though not a fault of TS government the Rabi crop sown was about 20% less than projected. As a result almost 20 lakh pump sets were not used which resulted in very low power consumption during summer of 2015. [10]
State Government & Industries:-
Things that TS got right
1. State Government employees got a special increment (by 43%); city police got sleek cars.
2. Due to the instability of past 5-10 years, IT sector in Hyderabad was hit very bad. Now with the new government in place, it is getting a lot of attention, with a start-up fund, IT-hub etc. in the offing. [Amazon India is planning to set up largest warehouse in Hyderabad etc.] [2]
3. TS recruitment was given a boost with KCR announcing that 15,000 government jobs will be filled soon. KCR had earlier announced that the state government would recruit 25,000 candidates into various departments. Notification for the first 15,000 is to be given in first week of August. The remaining 10,000 will be filled in coming months. [6]
4. TS government plans to set up electricity generation from 4320 MW currently to 23,675 MW by end of 2018. [7]
Things that TS got wrong
1. Showed revenue deficit in month of June to the tune of 2500 cr. [11] How can a state which is revenue surplus be revenue deficit within a year given that the tax base has actually increased? [As per EB report]
2. The students, who proested during the Telangana movement (especially from Osmania University), are up in arms for jobs which are difficult to come by, even in the Government sector.
3. Power generation is still grim in TS as of now. [1]
Social Issues & Other issues:-
Things that TS got right
1. Elevating the much ignored Yadagari Temple which hosts one of the very few Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy as its presiding deity. And the successful conduct of the recently concluded Godavai Mahapushkarams.
2. KCR has so far been successful in maintaining the Telangana sentiment at least in the rural parts of the state.
Things that TS got wrong
1. Unnecessary riling up issues with AP and on "Andhra" people. This has achieved nothing and has only alienated whatever little support he had amongst TS based "Andhra" people.
2. Banning of channels that were critical to some ministers in KCR cabinet has rubbed some sections of media in the wrong way. It took repeated reminders from the then I&B Minister Piyush Goyal to restore these channels in TS. [8]
3. His unilateral decisions to change the State Secretariat over Vaastu [3] , demolish the iconic Osmania General Hospital (OGH) etc. are working against him. A good leader would overcome these minor issues and would be able to either get people on board before doing this or improve workings of OGH instead of demolishing it.
4. The Intensive Household Survey, which aimed at ascertaining the details of an estimated 84 lakh families living in the state, sparked off a huge controversy. It drew public anger by talking about the nativity of the people, as it was seen as an attempt to target those who had migrated from Andhra and settled down in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana. [3]
To be Continued...
By Shashank Davanagere
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