Article by Vamsi Krishna Tellakula
Telangana and Seemandhra are like conjoined twins who have one heart .i.e Hyderabad. To divide the twins, you need to create another heart and change the entire artery system of the body which doesnt have heart.And if this operation of separation has to be done, its next to miracle to have two healthy bodies after its done.
First, to remind, that there will be a big burden on central government exchequer to create two states . A new state machinery has to be setup in Seemandhra region and all the existing state machinery in Hyderabad has to be restructured,reorganised and renamed. I dont even have the clue if we require one lakh crores or five lakh crores for this exercise.All the funds allocation for this exercise should be finalised and promised so that the new states does not suffer in future.
Topics i will discuss below :
Hyderabad,
Water
Electricity
TradeBarrier
Govt Machinery
Hyderabad :
Hyderabad- Education : Hyd is the educational hub of the state and even one of the best equipped in India , I know some friends who came from Himachal, Gujarat,Assam just to study here.
Hyderabad has ISB, IIT,IIIT,NIPER,NALSAR law university,BITS, HCU,Osmania,JNTU, PottiSriramulu Telugu university,NIFT, Acharya NG Ranga agricultural university. NIRD, ICFAI,ASCI etc and not to mention the 250+ Engineering colleges in its vicinity.
Hyderabad – Research and manufacturing : Hyderabad is also the research and Manufacturing hub of India. DRDL,ASL,CCMB, NFC,NIN, IICT,BHEL, NMDC, ECIL, HAL,IDPL,HMT, Reddy Labs etc.
Hyderabad – IT/ITES : Hyderabad is the Dravid of Indian IT if Bangalore is the Sachin. The city is home to more than 1500 IT firms. The major multinational IT firms located in Hyderabad are Microsoft (the largest R&D campus outside the US), Google,Facebook, CA Technologies,Amazon, IBM, Motorola, Samsung, Agilent, Automatic Data Processing, Oracle Corporation, Yahoo!, Dell, Texas Instruments, Hewlett-Packard, Virtusa, OpenText,UHG,The major Indian firms with development centres in the city are Mahindra Satyam, Infosys, Four Soft, Wipro, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Polaris and others.
Hyderabad-Sports : Hyderabad has the potential to be the sports capital of India. Gopichand Academy is churning out the next Indian Badminton legends. We have extraordinary sports infrastructure on lines of Delhi and SAP is considered one of the good sports administration in India..Hyderabad has hosted a bunch of international sports events and proved its mettle.
And iam not sure how the replication of such institutions can be done in the new state of Seemandhra region. Almost all these educational and research institutions can put a reservation of locals and thus depriving a grand chance to the new state of Seemandhra region. To avoid this,
No existing public institution in Telangana region should put up new local reservation restrictions and consider both the people of regions as ONE( exempting the governance bureaucracy) atleast for next 20 years.Likewise in Seemandhra region for all the new institutions that will come up.
Also, No UT for Hyderabad
Water :
There will be water wars between the new states , of which Rayalaseema region need much more of allocation. All the allocations have to be decided beforehand splitting the states and a special preference needs to be given to the arid region of Rayalaseema. Polvaram project needs to come up to save the Delta regions which is the rice granary of India . There is a danger that there might be water stoppage at Srisailam and Nagarjuna Sagar .So,
The current usage and allocations has to continue with respect to Godavari and Krishna rivers and any other river which is flowing in both the regions of the state and an independent body should be constituted with constitutional privileges to overlook this.
Electricity :
There will be a scarcity with respect to electricity , for the state of Telangana if state is bifurcated. Seemandhra region has abundant gas reserves and uranium reserves which are yet to be exploited and can be used for power generation in future. The Singareni coal is loosing its efficiency and KTPS(Kothagudem) in Telangana region is using the imported coal or from Talchar mines for its electricity production. So,
Telangana region should be given preference allocation for all the new electricity generation plants that will come up in Seemandhra region. Telangana region also needs additional consumption as the irrigation is mainly by electric motors .
Trade Barrier :
Telangana region will not have a sea port and will be landlocked.This seriously effects the imports and exports for the region of Telangana region. Currently, agriculture produce in states are not allowed to be sold outside of the state . A farmer cannot sell his rice or mirchi in another state. Going by the statistics, Seemandhra region rice production outbeats Telangana region and the new trade barrier that will come up will only increase the costs of all the essential items in Telangana region that are produced in Seemandhra region.
Rice, tobacco,cotton,palmolive etc would be severly hit with this new trade barrier.
Sameway, the existing manufacturing and pharma sector in Hyderabad would be severly hit with this new trade barrier and land locked situation. So,
There should not be any additional taxes and trade barriers with respect to import and exports for the current entire state region of Andhra Pradesh and all the coming up internal trade restrictions need to be reviewed so that both the new states are in a win-win situation.
Rayalaseema and North Andhra :
A separate Rayalseema board and North Andhra board needs to be setup to address any issues with respect to that region.There is a huge danger that if Rayalaseema people or North Coastal Andhra people feel discrimination after some 20-30 years
Bureaucracy :
All the existing personnel of state services in Hyderabad should be given preference to settle in their current cadre or the new state cadre . If they are opting for new state cadre , they should be given a uplift in their wages or some special benefits .Also, the people of Telangana should not be left out in creation of new state machinery of Seemandhra region and loosing some great opportunities.We have around 100+ government departments which will need to be developed in the new state and an estimated 1-2 lakh new government employees are required for Seemandhra region governance. So,
All this needs to be done by a central government constituted tribunal which looks after till the complete bifurcation is completed.
Atleast 25% preference allocation needs to be given in all the government services for the people of Telangana region so that they can also opt for the enormous job opportunities that will prop up in creating a new state machinery of Seemandhra region.
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Being a staunch UnitedAndhra Supporter myself, i dont want the process of formation of State of Telangana to delay any further after whatever has happened. All major political parties going back on their word would mean a bigger disaster to Indian democracy than creating a new state solely on emotions.Also dragging this issue any further will only complicate the issue and all political parties will use it futher for political benefits.
Telangana people should NOT think that this is a victory over someone. Its just a political decision and please dont become political scapegoats. A leader who doesnt know how to be humble on a victory doesnt even deserve a victory. (KCR reckless comments after CWC decision) .
Telangana movement accelerated only with the help of hate speeches and warmongering . If this continues, you are not creating a new state , but two warring states . Yes, different regions can divide like brothers, but first , lets decide how many brothers are we talking about. 2 ( Telangana, Seemandhra), 3( T,S Rayalaseema) or 4 ( T, S, R , Hyderabad) .
Whose Hyderabad is this? 