Do we need Telangana ?

The state of Andhra Pradesh is burning out with lot of agitations from so called Telangana activists. For those readers who dont understand what is this Telangana , lemme give you small overview.

Telangana means "land of Telugu people". It consists of the Telugu speaking parts of the princely state of Hyderabad. The region lies on the Deccan plateau to the west of the eastern ghat range, and includes the northwestern interior districts of Warangal, Adilabad, Khammam, Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddy, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Medak and the state capital of Andhra Pradesh i.e Hyderabad. The Krishna and Godavari rivers flow through the region from west to east. You can see the marked area in the picture to find the exact location in India.

After India got independence, Telangana used to be a separate state under the empire of Nizam of Hyderabad. But after that the government removed the Nizam and merged Telangana with Andhra Pradesh with a agreement over certain implementations.

History :

1964 : Since none of the agreed upon implementations while creating unified Andhra Pradesh have been implemented, a separate Telangana movement with the support of students and political activists took place. With support to the movement from all sections of people , it lead to lot of violence and deaths of hundreds. But the movement got a beating when the greedy political leaders of the state joined into congress party. Even a separate Jai Andhra movement has started in the coastal parts of Andhra Pradesh. To stop both the movements , the government of India formulated a Six point formula which has been agreed by leaders from both the areas.

The `Six-Point Formula' included
(1) the abolition of Mulki rules and the Telangana Regional Committee
(2) the establishment of a Central University at Hyderabad to augment educational facilities.
(3) In regards to jobs, the state will be divided into six zones, within the framework of three regions, namely, Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, and Telangana (Zone V, and Zone VI) with Hyderabad under Zone VI. Each zone should prefer local candidates for state government jobs. However according to GOM, the regions were rezoned with Zone I,II,III Coastal Andhra, Zone IV Rayalaseema, Zone V,IV Telangana.

1990-2004 : Everything started all over again when the BJP government made a promise about separate telangana state formation before coming to power . BJP created other small states Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Uttarakhand. but it could not create Telangana due to strong opposition from its coalition partner Telugu Desam Party (TDP) . Among these developments a new Political Party called Telangana Rashtra Samithi headed by K .Chandra Sekhar Rao (a ex TDP member) has been formed with the objective of attaining separate statehood for Telangana.

2004-2009 : TRS became the coalition partner for Congress at the centre with the hope that Congress will give separate statehood to Telangana. But inspite of efforts from KCR , nothing happened in the entire term. It lead to reelections in Telangana region in 16 MLA areas. But only 7 of 16 MLA s could won the election which suppressed the TRS movement.

2009-10 : KCR started a hunger strike for separate state formation. The central government surrendered this time and the Home Minister made a official statement that the center has no objection. It lead to wide protests all over the state with a Unified Andhra movement from Andhra Side. The center has again to take the word back and it led to a row of agitations from Telangana activists. The state capital received a heavy beating due to continuous protests in the form of Bandh's by the T activists. Even the death of the Mr Raja Sekhara Reddy and the appointment of incompetent Chief Minister Mr Rosaiah is one the main reasons for continuous protests which is causing huge discomfort to working class people .

Why do they want Telangana ?
People do have grievances regarding Telangana but they can be sorted out even without a separate state. Lets have a outlook on the possible grievances of Telangana people. 4 main problems are reported by most of the people.

Irrigation : Eventhough the main catchment area of Krishna and Godavari exists in Telangana, its benefits are mostly reaped by the coastal Andhra with 72.5% of water going over there. Thanks to the canal irrigation systems. Telangana only get 18 % of water.

Jobs: Only 20% of total Government employees, less than 10% employees in secretariate, less than 5% of head of the departments in Andhra Pradesh are from Telangana. More than the loss of jobs, Telangana people lost the representation in government subsequently lost out in the budget allocations, subsidies and attention to their problems. In 1985, Government published G.O 610 to remove/transfer all the non-locals in government jobs in Telangana region, against the six point formula. Besides not implementing these orders after so many years further recruitment of non-locals in the Telangana region is going on. By this time in 1985, 58,000 non-locals have occupied jobs in Telangana region. The Girglaini Commission set up in 2001, came up with a report that around 2 lakh govt. jobs in Telangana region are enjoyed by migrants from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions

Education : The share of Telangana as a percent of the total expenditure of the state on salaries of staff in educational institutions in 2001 is as follows:

i. Primary schools (government): 31.44%

ii. Primary schools (aided): 9.86%

iii. Degree colleges (government): 37.85%

iv. Degree colleges (aided): 21.79%

Budget Allocations: Expenditure incurred on this region has never been more than 25% to 30% of total expenditure of Andhra Pradesh. Most years, funds allocated to Telangana were never spent.

Jobs: Only 20% of total Government employees, less than 10% employees in secretariat , less than 5% of head of the departments in Andhra Pradesh are from Telangana. More than the loss of jobs, Telangana people lost the representation in government subsequently lost out in the budget allocations, subsidies and attention to their problems.

Even if Telangana is going to be created , Are the above grievances going to get resolved ?

No. Telangana is powered by greedy politicians like KCR who dont care about people. The politicians are neither brave enough to take up something in their areas. The reason for backwardness is nothing except inefficient politicians. They never fought for the cause of development. When KCR was a central minister what has he done to Telangana ? But people still voted for him again and again. When you vote for such people, how can you expect development to happen (with or without separate Telangana)? If you say migrated Andhra ites are taking your jobs who is restricting you guys from going to their regions and taking up jobs. I agree that lot of backwardnesss is there in terms of revenue generation and education in Telangana but it can not be sorted out only with a separate state.

May be telangana region can be given more preference by the government from next time onwards. Just asking creation of a separate state for the above reasons is not justified. Formation of the state involves lot of things. Since the capital resides in Telangana region, all the infrastructure needs to be recreated again. But w
ith the present financial condition of the government, this thing seems impossible. Its not just infrastructure, it needs lot of things to be divided. People should understand this before doing some protests.

I dont understand why students are getting involved in this. Only one Osmania university in the region is supporting this movement. The movement is mainly supported by students from Arts departments . None of the engineering students does support this. Only students in Arts departments who join any kind of protest when you pay some money are a part of it ( FYI even a average student will prefer engineering in Andhra Pradesh ). Its just our media thats creating the hype by showing over and over again.

What is your view on Telangana ? Dont forget to post your view as comments.

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Posted in: general,Politics