When caught red-handed...

The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference. 

Ever since the Vote-for-Note scandal broke out, it has been a free for all charade in both the Telugu states. The background for the scandal has been discussed earlier here.

Clearly caught on the backfoot, Chandrababu Naidu and the TDP have totally gone on an aggressive tangent, trying their best to divert attention. First, Chandrababu Naidu made this an Andhra Pradesh versus Telangana battle. He questioned as to how the Telangana government can dare to tap the phones of the representative of 5 crore people? This set off counter questions – is Chandrababu Naidu confirming that the voice on the leaked tape was his or not!

TDP members (including MLAs and Ministers) went on an overdrive and filed multiple cases against KCR in Andhra Pradesh. All cases basically accuse him of trying to tap phones. After seeing that this is not having much impact, the TDP has brought Section-8 of the AP re-organisation act into the picture.

Section 8 deals with “Responsibility of Governor to protect residents of common capital of Hyderabad“. It says that the Governor’s responsibility “shall extend to matters such as law and order” amongst others, and also states that the Governor shall “exercise individual judgment” after “consultation with the TS government“.

This section was necessitated because many folks expressed apprehensions on their security in Hyderabad. The TRS government from day 1 has said that there is no need for anyone to fear for security and has rejected the Section 8. TDP has again brought the issue to the fore.

TDP’s argument is that TRS has used the police machinery to tap the phones of 120 of their functionaries, and is therefore creating a law and order problem in the state. Chandrababu Naidu wants the Governor to take over the police of the city, in accordance with the section in the Reorganization act. And to show further aggression, Chandrababu Naidu now has AP police also guarding his residence (all along, it was the TS police giving him security, and even they continue to be here). Some loud mouth Ministers from the AP government went on to announce that they will not hesitate to even setup AP police stations in Hyderabad.

On the June 16, there were hectic parleys in both the camps. A few TV channels started talking about resignation by Chandrababu Naidu because the ACB is all set to file a case against him. Then there was speculation that TDP government will setup an SIT or have a CID inquiry into the various cases filed against KCR. In a free-for-all rumour mongering – everything from impending arrests of “more people” to “both governments collapsing” was thrown around. The Opposition in AP, the YSRCP is also desperately trying to cash in on this scandal and is using its mouthpiece to the fullest to spread all possible rumours against the TDP.

Just when we thought that both the states have begun their march towards progress in earnest, all hell broke lose again! Naidu’s tangential approach coupled with aggression not seen before has irked KCR. He has also resorted to using ugly language, further flaring up tempers. This issue is because the TDP MLA, Mr. Revanth Reddy was caught bribing – that the TRS was able to poach (or gather support) of nearly 20 MLAs is not the issue because there is no “proof” available of any bribing! It is most unfortunate that the TDP chose to make this a battle between two states when caught on the backfoot. The end to this ugly game is no where in sight.

Note-for-Vote

The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference. 

Events over the past one week in Telangana have been quite unbelievable, even leading to perhaps one of the biggest crisis for the Telugu Desam Party.

Elections to the Legislative Council

In May, Election Commission issued a notification for elections to the MLC seats in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. These seats opened up under the MLA quota, i.e., MLAs will vote to elect a few MLCs. Six seats opened up in Telangana Assembly; Four in Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Only four candidates filed nominations in the AP Legislature so there was no election. Seven candidates filed their nominations in Telangana Legislature, making an election inevitable.

Out of these seven, five were from the ruling TRS party; one from the Congress and one from the TDP. To win, a candidate needed 17 first preference votes for him, i.e., 17 MLAs have to vote for him. Following is the “official” composition of the Telangana Assembly:

As you can see, TRS has 65 MLAs. For all of its candidates to win, it needs support of 5*17=85 MLAs. Congress has enough MLAs to get its candidate elected. TDP+BJP combine has enough candidates to get its candidate elected. But this is “official”.

5 MLAs of the TDP have jumped ship to the TRS party. One of them has been made a Minister too. 4 MLAs of the Congress party have jumped ship to the TRS. 7 MLAs of MIM have also supported the TRS party. KCR’s son, a Minister in his cabinet, KTR spoke to Jagan Mohan Reddy to garner support of 3 YSRCP MLAs. This brings their overall strength to 84. The Left parties have 2 MLAs and they have decided to abstain from voting.

Now, “unofficially” the TDP+BJP combine has only 15 votes, therefore they can’t get their candidate elected – which means they are just putting up a token fight. TRS needs one more MLA, TDP needs 2 more MLAs. And here’s where the TDP miscalculated so badly, that all hell has broken lose in the past one week.

Vote-for-Note Scandal

Voting was scheduled for June 2nd. On the evening of June 1st, we were shown the explosive video of deputy leader of TDP in the Assembly, Revanth Reddy, offering 50 lakhs in cash to Mr. Stephenson, nominated MLA (from the Anglo-Indian quota) and further promising an additional 4.5 crores once voting is completed on the 2nd. Revanth Reddy is a very popular TDP MLA – a loud mouth many a time, but has the gift of oratory and therefore is a big hit in public meetings. This came as a huge shocker to everyone. One couldn’t imagine that he would be so stupid as to go and deliver the cash himself!

2 videos have been leaked – one recorded on May 31st – in which Revanth and Stephenson discuss the details of the offer – 5 crores cash, and if TRS government decides to curtail the term of Stephenson, then he will get MLA seat from the AP quota of Anglo Indians (which as far I know, doesn’t even exist). Revanth Reddy also mentions that he will talk to his boss and clear up all things. He also mentions that he will get the boss to talk to Stephenson, should he have any doubts about the deal. The second video, and more incriminating video, is of the evening of June 1st – where Revanth Reddy gives Stephenson a bag of cash amounting to 50 lakhs and promises the additional 4.5 crores the next day.

A couple of days later, the Home Minister of Telangana says that they even have tapes of Chandrababu Naidu talking to Stephenson. And finally on the evening of June 7th, this (alleged) tape was also leaked. The discussion is a short one – Chandrababu Naidu says – “Our people have briefed me. I am with you. What all they spoke, we will honor. Freely you can decide, no problem. That is our commitment.”

And whatever remaining hell had to break lose, broke lose! The AP government and the TDP party have come out and said that the voice does not belong to Chandrababu Naidu at all. They have now made this into a TS vs AP battle! Some random tapes of a conversation between a DSP and a MLA were released by the AP government on a TV channel. These tapes were supposed to “incriminate” KCR’s son, but they do nothing.

The politics

Chandrababu Naidu’s USP has been that he and his party are epitomes of honesty. One of their strongest campaign points last year was to choose between a “thief” (referring to Jagan Mohan Reddy) and a leader. By getting caught while trying to buy the vote of an MLA – that impression officially lies in tatters now. This was a wrong battle the TDP chose to fight. It was very clear from the beginning that the TDP did not have the numbers to win, instead of staking so much prestige, it would have been good if they lost gracefully and then went to town claiming how a party that won 65 seats was able to gather 85 votes in the Assembly.

Instead, Revanth Reddy’s ambition coupled with a bad call by Chandrababu Naidu has landed the party in a soup (and perhaps one of their biggest crisis too). Revanth Reddy claims in one of the videos that Naidu agreed to put up a candidate in this election only because he convinced him to do so. Given how the failing was evident, did ego get to Revanth Reddy? Did he want to win at any cost and please the party supremo? On what basis did they count the support of 17 MLAs, when the writing on the wall was so clear!

Whatever happened in the last one week is quite unbelievable. The stock of TDP is anyway very low in Telangana currently. The events of the last week only add one more nail to their coffin. There might be a minor setback in Andhra Pradesh too, however, elections are 4 years away, the only thing that will matter to the people of AP are execution of TDP promises. The choice the people of AP have is Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy (unless Pawan Kalyan decides to contest in 2019 separately). Jagan is accused number 1 in 11 cases. Just yesterday, former APCC chief, Botsa Satyanarayana has joined YSRCP. The image of Botsa is also quite bad when it comes to corruption. Given this choice and the fact that elections are 4 years away, it is unclear how the tapes will impact.

Chandrababu Naidu is legally safe – even if the conversation is true – it doesn’t reveal anything. He doesn’t take names and numbers, so no charge can be framed against him, no arrests will be made. KCR has scored over the TDP in this round. But we haven’t seen the end of this unfortunate saga yet.

One year after Bifurcation - Part2

The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference.

Part-1 of this series discussed the contentious issues between both the Telangana (TS) and Andhra Pradesh (AP) states. This part will discuss the various policies that both the governments have introduced/implemented so far.

Telangana

Mission Kakatiya

Whenever new governments come, we have often heard about them announcing/sanctioning irrigation projects that often involve constructions of dams. These projects are seldom completed within 3-5 years; and face a lot of legal and logistical difficulties – and are therefore often stuck at the foundation stone level only!

In contrast to announcing such projects that will never be constructed, KCR’s government has announced a feasible and much larger scale project – “Mission Kakatiya”. Through this, the goal is to restore nearly 50,000 lakes and tanks across the state! The government has invited participation from the general public, as well as from various departments.

This is the key flagship program of this government – if this succeeds – we are looking at a very long haul of KCR at the helm. More importantly, if this succeeds – many woes of farmers and also drinking water problems will be resolved. Mission Kakatiya deserves all the support one can give – in its success lies Telangana’s and India’s success.

Education sector

This 5 minute speech by KCR in the Assembly accurately captures the dismal state of engineering education in both the states. One of the biggest complaint of many industry bigwigs is that the quality of engineering students passing out is very poor. In a very bold step, KCR government has sanctioned the raiding of as many as ~150 colleges and show cause notices were issued to all of them. It is important that engineering colleges don’t take students for a ride – if KCR succeeds in streamlining the faulty system, many students and parents will be indebted to him!

However, early during his tenure, he came up a controversial scheme – FAST (about which we have written earlier). The High Court has struck this scheme as illegal, in the later half of the year, bringing an end to a lot of (unnecessary) confusion.

No government jobs announced

Another big reason for disenchantment amongst the people of Telangana, in the undivided AP, was that there is severe injustice meted out to them in government jobs. Employee Unions played a big role in the success of the Telangana movement. However, due to many administrative problems, the new government has not been able to announce any new government posts. Students are a bit disenchanted because of this – it’s been a year and no notification for jobs has been issue. Hopefully, this year will bring in better tidings.

Students belonging to Osmania University are also regularly protesting at the government’s move to regularize contract employees of the government. The students contend that they stand to lose if this is done. There is a no resolution yet for this demand.

Swachh Bharat

The TRS government has picked up Swachh Bharat in earnest. Infact they have picked this up in more earnest than the state party unit of the BJP! The program has just begun – so we will need to wait a couple of years. But like they say, well begun is half done :).

“Ban” on media

This topic was also written about here, so won’t dwell into details. Unfortunately, one news channel, ABN Andhra Jyothy, is still not telecasted by the cable operators (nearly 11 months) in Telangana. Hopefully the ban will be lifted soon, because the intolerance to dissenting opinion is surely not a good thing in a democracy.

Capitalizing on Hyderabad

One of the biggest reasons for the Telangana state doing well on finances is Hyderabad. KCR has done well to allay all fears regarding Hyderabad. Pre-bifurcation, there was this lurking fear that all “Andhra people” will be asked to leave etc. All such fears have turned out to be false, and Hyderabad is fast regaining its status as a big employment hub. Multiple MoUs have been signed by various companies to setup factories/offices in and around Hyderabad. KCR did well to capitalize well on the gold mine that is Hyderabad. The sheen that was in the danger of wearing off is back.

Improved Power Supply

For the past 4-5 years, we have been subjected to long power cuts in the summer (and sometimes in winter too!). The situation has improved by leaps and bounds this year. KCR is promising a power surplus state by 2017. If the going is as smooth, rest assured, KCR will back 2019. 24 hour power and Mission Kakatiya are the key to re-election. KCR knows this, and therefore the supreme focus on these two.

Andhra Pradesh

Hudhud devastation

Andhra Pradesh had the worst possible beginning any state could imagine of. The massive devastation caused by the Hudhud cyclone could not have come at a worse time. The AP government received all round appreciation on how it handled the entire tragedy. The CM camped in Vizag for a week to put all systems in place – the ministers were directly supervising relief works for weeks after the cyclone too. The region is still recovering from this. The city of Vizag is back to normalcy, but it is the farmer who is still recovering.

A new Capital City

One of the first tasks of the AP government was to identify a region for capital city; come up with a policy to acquire land for the capital city; ensure that some progress is made in the next 4 years in building of the city. First, the region near Vijayawada-Guntur was identified, and the Assembly unanimously accepted that this region would be the capital city region of the new state. The state government has come up with a land pooling policy, and has so far acquired a whopping 30,000 acres of farm land in this region (more specifically in the Tullur Mandal). The government has decided the name the capital as Amaravati.

One of the campaign ads of TDP was that Chandrababu Naidu will construct a capital that will resemble Singapore in its growth. The CM visited Singapore and had discussions with various folks before announcing that Master plan for the capital will be provided from Singapore – the CM and ministers keep telling us that the master plan will be developed by Singapore for free. As we know, nothing comes for free :). We are yet to know what benefits Singapore is going to get from this.

Some controversies have erupted regarding land pooling because few farmers are not willing to let go of their land. Film star Pawan Kalyan made a fleeting appearance and said that he will stand by these farmers – his argument being that no single farmer should suffer. With the opposition in tatters, one must say that the land pooling has been relatively a smooth affair.  There have been questions raised on why such a massive land bank of 30,000 acres – the government is justifying this by saying this is needed to build a world class city.

State Finances and special status

The precarious financial situation of the state government was known from the word go. To add to the woes, the TDP has promised a full loan waiver to all farmers. There was a lot of churning within the government and the RBI to somehow make this happen. RBI was not ready to restructure the loans, and the government could not afford to not give a full loan waiver. A compromise formula was worked out, and the full loan waiver is now being implemented in stages and not at one go. The upper limit is 1.5 lakh rupees, which the government claims will cover 96% of the farmers. Long queues are still seen outside govt. offices to get the loan waiver – clarity is yet to emerge on the scale of implementation yet.

And then the Hudhud devastation happened. This further emptied the coffers. And then in an ill-advised move, the government has increased the salary of it’s employees by a whopping 43% (This happened because the TS government increased for their employees. Immediately, AP employees were up in arms). The central government was extending help in bits and pieces, but there was a major flareup in AP when nothing substantial was announced for AP in the budget.

The anger against the central government was so high that even a 1,78,000 crore additional grant for the next five years, and an additional 22,000 crores for bridging of the revenue gap for the next 5 years was considered inconsequential. The media spin was massive on this – Modi has failed the people of AP! Take a look at the image below to understand the spin by the media.

The unlimited doles being announced is adding to the financial crisis – there is a huge perception that a “special status” category will solve all of AP’s financial problems. On BJP’s urging, the then PM made a statement on the floor of the house that “special status” will be granted to AP. Now, Venkaih Naidu keeps telling that such a status will have to be ratified by the NDC and it’s not an easy task to do it, given the demands pending from other states too. This has further angered people – if this status is not granted in the immediate future, the going will get quite tough for the ruling coalition.

Swachh Bharat

Chandrababu Naidu has been one of the earliest proponents of cleanliness. It was in the fitness of things that he was made the chair of the sub-group of CMs on implementing of Swachh Bharat. He has also taken up this program in earnest much earlier in AP. In addition to this, he is also spearheading a “Neeru-Chettu” program – basically aimed at planting more trees (he did something similar in his earlier stint as CM too).

Irrigation Schemes

The focus of the new government is two irrigation projects – Pattiseema and Polavaram. Polavaram has been declared a national project, and it is expected that the centre will finish it ASAP. This project has been lingering since decades. Hence, it is unreasonable to expect any completion before the next election. The Pattiseema project aims to bring drinking and irrigation water to the water-starved region of Rayalseema. The main opposition party, YSRCP, is strongly opposed to this project. Chandrababu Naidu has promised to finish this project within one year – if the promise is kept, then a generation will be thankful to him. If not, well… :).

One year after Bifurcation - Part1

The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference:

When the AP-reorganization bill was first released to the public many wondered why the Congress party was bothering to split the state if they are proposing a common capital, common High Court, common Governor, and a common Entrance exam! Events in the past one year since the birth of Telangana (TS) and Andhra Pradesh (AP) prove that these points have been areas of serious concerns between both the states. In the past one year, apart from these controversies, both states have taken some major policy decisions and have focused on implementation of a few. This two-part series will explore the controversies post-bifurcation; and also how both the states have fared so far on governance and policy fronts:

The first part will discuss the contentious issues between the two states.

Common High Court

Within months of the new states being born, Advocates belonging to both the states have upped the ante in demanding that the High Court be split as soon as possible. One of the key points in Telangana CM’s many discussions with the central ministers and also the CJI has been to speed up the process of bifurcating the High Court. There is major pressure from the Telangana advocates on this front – so much that they even blocked a Judge’s car by holding placards that say “Andhra Judges, Go Back”! The acrimony was so bad that a farewell planned for outgoing CJI by the advocates, had to be cancelled because both (AP and TS) groups wanted to own the organising of the farewell party!!

A PIL was filed asking for an establishment of AP High Court in Hyderabad itself, till the time AP government decides on the premises in its state. The argument was that if two secretariats and two Assembly buildings are possible, why not two High Courts? The Hyderabad High Court rejected this argument and has ruled that the premises for AP HC must be in AP only. The center has begun to take baby steps towards splitting, but no concrete proposal has come forward yet – primarily because the AP government is yet to respond on where the HC will be located. Whilst the TS government wants a speedy resolution, keeping in mind the aspirations of Telangana people and lawyers, the AP government is in no hurry to establish a High Court within its geographical region. Till then – people suffer.

Common Entrance Exams

Right from the word go – this had the word “controversy” written all over it. The act said the entrance exams shall be common. It did not tell us who will conduct this exam! So quite naturally, both AP and TS vied for the honours. Almost immediately after the states were born, TS government asked for postponement of counselling for students who passed the 2014 EAMCET (Engineering, Agriculture, and Medical Common Entrance Test) exam. The matter had to be taken to Supreme Court, which ruled that the counselling cannot be postponed and has to completed by August and will be conducted by the AP government (common for both TS and AP).

After the uneasy truce over counselling, the next impediment was the Intermediate (+2) exams and the 2015 EAMCET. TS took a step forward and announced that it will go ahead and conduct its own entrance exam. The Governor tried to bring about a truce by meeting both the HRD ministers from the states, but to no avail. AP was arguing that the provision of the Reorg act were clear that AP must conduct the common exam. TS argued the reverse. The High Court ruled that AP did not have the exclusive right to conduct the common exam. Eventually both the governments took separate routes – and conducted all exams on their own. Students wanting admissions into colleges in and around Hyderabad now had to write two entrance exams. However, a noteworthy point is that it is good that this clarity has emerged in the first year. This would have been even more acrimonious had it been allowed to be postponed.

Bifurcation of Employees

Believe it or not, the bifurcation of employees is not yet complete! So much that none of the governments were not able to announce new positions – because they are still not sure of the available number of positions. The bifurcation of All India Services itself took more than 4-5 months, with the Prime Minister sending back the file twice for reconsiderations! Once that was accomplished, the governments have now focused on splitting up of the employees. Just about a couple of weeks back, various employee unions in TS have rued that the bifurcation of the employees is not fully complete and is causing many hardships to them!

Water and power sharing issues

In February this year, there was a major flareup at the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam. The major flareup resulted in policemen from both the states clashing with lathis! The flare up was regarding the amount of water to be released from the dam, and who had the final say on the decision! It required the Chief Ministers of the two states to meet in the presence of the Governor and resolve the issue. The commendable aspect being that both CMs resolved this issue within 24 hours. There have been major problems with respect to sharing of power too. The first salvo was fired by AP government when it wanted to scrap PPAs. . Earlier in the year, TRS government blamed AP partially for the power crisis in the state. They accused AP of deliberately producing less power so that they share less with Telangana. AP put forth its share of arguments as to why production went down. Later, KCR went a step ahead and announced that he will never buy power from AP because they are selling it a very high rateHowever, the current situation with respect to power supply and distribution is quite good in both the states – so there is little conflict now.

Common Governor

The only sensible arrangement in the bill was to have a common governor, till a time the President decides to have separate governor. E. Narasimhan has conducted himself with dignity. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress spokesperson, however once wondered why there is no governor for Telangana. How does one respond to such meaningless questions?

Political Scenario

One of the biggest advantages in both the states was the clear mandate the TRS and the TDP got. Quite expectedly, there have been exodus into these parties.

In Telangana, 5 TDP MLAs moved over to TRS. Two of them have been given ministerial positions. 2 MLAs who won on BSP ticket have moved over to TRS. TRS suffered a minor setback when their candidate lost the BJP+TDP candidate in the MLC Graduate constituency elections from three districts (that included Hyderabad). Otherwise, the opposition parties have pretty much been lame duck – not showing any aggression in countering the government.

In AP, a couple of MPs who have been elected from the YSRCP have now sided with TDP. No MLAs from YSRCP have officially jumped into the TDP (because they would invite disqualification, as YSRCP has 67 seats in a 175 seat assembly). However land acquisition issues in AP have grabbed some headlines, thereby creating some space for the opposition. Film star Pawan Kalyan made a fleeting appearance in support of the farmers who were not willing to part with their land for the capital region.

Vijayawada as new Capital...

 

The following article was published in Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference.

 

As was widely expected, the Andhra Pradesh Government, led by Chandrababu Naidu, has announced in the State Assembly on Thursday that the new capital of Andhra Pradesh will be built around the city of Vijayawada. Speculation was on for a long time that this will be the most widely accepted choice. The 20-page statement of Chandrababu Naidu deals comprehensively with detailed plans for all districts.

 

A brief history before we get into the statement – In her unexplained urgency to split the State, Sonia Gandhi did not bother to announce a new capital for the State of Andhra Pradesh. As was the wont of the UPA, they set up a committee, headed by Sivaramakrishnan (former Urban Development secretary) to recommend the best city that can become a capital.

 

All this while, there was near unanimous opinion that the new capital city should not be a centralised one like Hyderabad. Over-dependency on Hyderabad is what precipitated the crisis of bifurcation — something that the new State of Andhra Pradesh will have to cope with. Contrary to some people’s argument that Chandrababu Naidu concentrated only on Hyderabad, it is my view that the fault for relying excessively on Hyderabad lies with the Congress. Naidu lost power way back in 2004, when he was still setting up the new Hi-Tech City. There was no way to have started decentralisation at that point of time. Congress, in power since 2004, set up every notable institute only in Hyderabad ever since – even the Ocean Studies institute is in Hyderabad!

Anyways, learning from the mistakes of the past, people wanted this Government to decentralise the operations of the State Government across the State. This is also what the Sivaramakrishnan committee broadly recommended too. The committee has chosen five benchmarks to study the viability of various cities in AP:

 

1. Availability of Water

2. Scope of Natural Calamities

3. Connectivity

4. Land availability

5. Regional development (around the city)

 

Vijayawada scores high on 4 out of the above 5 points. The river Krishna flows through the city. Vijayawada is a major railway junction, and is centrally located. The city is reachable within 4-8 hours from various parts of the State through bus or rail. It also has a regional airport which, given the new status now, might get upgraded to international. The city is metropolitan in nature too, and the income levels are comparable to any decent city. However, the place where Vijayawada doesn’t meet the criteria is the land availability. There is a shortage of availability of Government lands.

 

Here is where the wording of the statement becomes crucial – it is proposed to develop the region around Vijayawada as the capital of the State. Guntur is another town that is very close to Vijayawada. The problem of land availability is not as severe. The plan of the Government is to develop the Vijayawada-Guntur-Tenali-Mangalagiri stretch as the capital region, but that is very long-term (~10 years as stipulated by the Act). However, there is also criticism that this region was chosen only because of land mafia! Ever since the speculation started on this being the capital, land rates have increased manifold. And since a lot of big shots will suffer losses, the government had even more reason to choose this region!

 

While there might be some truth to that story, this region trumps all other regions on various other parameters too, as is evident from the committee report. However, the focus of the Government is not just on developing the capital alone. Chandrababu Naidu has a detailed a plan for every single district in the State. Broadly, he has proposed/promised the following to almost all districts:

 

1. Three Mega cities (Vizag, Vijayawada and Tirupati)

2. A total of 14 smart cities spread across 13 districts.

3. A total of 14 airports for these 14 smart cities!

4. Industrial parks to some of the cities (includes manufacturing hub, electronics hub, IT hub, cement industry at various places)

5. To add 10 more ports to the existing 4 ports in AP, thereby making the state a logistics hub.

6. Food parks (to some district headquarters a.k.a smart cities).

7. One institution of excellence per smart city too – for example, A school of Architecture to one city, Fine Arts academy to another, IIM, IISc; AIIMS; Petroleum University etc)

8. Various pending irrigation projects to be completed on priority to all the 14 districts.

9. To utilize the mineral wealth of the Rayalaseema region.

10. Metro rail to the 3 Mega cities

 

Overall, the vision looks very good. Some look over the top too (the 14 airports, for example).

 

However, it was very important that such a document came out of the earliest, and the TDP Government has definitely scored well on this count. The direction is now clear – we know what priority has been set for each district headquarter. The next biggest challenge is to overcome the huge revenue deficit (Nearly Rs 15,000 crore) and move ahead with the massive plans that have been envisaged. Another challenge is the farm loan waiver – a burden of nearly Rs 35,000 crore. It is obviously not going to be an easy path. Naidu must know it better than any one of us. He will try his best to complete in the next four years, whatever he thinks will give him a second majority in 2019.

The pangs of separation..

 

The following article was written for Niti Central. Pasting it here for reference:

 

When the Andhra Pradesh Re-organisation Bill was first approved by the UPA Cabinet and sent to the Andhar Pradesh Assembly for its views, I wrote in Niti Central on why this Bill is a contentious one. The Bill provided for a common capital, common High Court, common Governor, and common entrance exam pattern. If everything substantial remained common for a period of 10 years, I wondered what exact purpose is this bifurcation achieving? Some of these are basic contentious issues that were supposed to be resolved ‘before’ the State split.

 

As has been predicted, the issue of common Governor and common exam pattern has kicked up a storm between the two new States – Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Let’s examine these issues now.

Who is a “Student of Telangana”?

 

One of the biggest reasons for YSR winning in 2009 and YSRCP garnering 67 seats in 2014 is the Fee Reimbursement programme introduced by YSR. Under this programme, economically backward families will be fully reimbursed with the fee they have incurred on their child’s education in degree colleges. Needless to say, even well-to-do families utilised this scheme by producing fake certificates. Since this heaped good electoral dividends, it was expected the new Governments of Telangana and Andhar Pradesh will continue with the programme.

 

The Telangana Government re-christened the programme to FAST (Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana). Who is a “student of Telangana”? According to the Government, anyone who traces back his ancestry to Telangana before 1956! Let me give you a couple of examples (most plausible ones):

 

1. If I was born in Hyderabad in 1991; if my dad was born in Hyderabad in 1961; if my grandad was born in Tirupati (or Chennai or Delhi) in 1931 and moved to Hyderabad in 1957 – then I am ‘not’ a “Student of Telangana”.

 

2. If my dad moved to Hyderabad anytime after 1956 (say as early as 1958), and I was born and bought up in Nizamabad from 1993, then I am ‘not’ a Student of Telangana”.

 

Essentially, students now will have to face hardships because their grandfathers have not settled in Telangana region before 1956! One argument being put forth is that this is for “economically backward” students, who form a miniscule portion anyway. The counter argument is that why should even a minuscule portion suffer because of the whims of the party in power? The second most important point is this – will the Government extend the concept of “Student of Telangana” to the admission process too?

 

For example: Osmania University guidelines suggest that if a student has studied for four continuous years prior to admission into degree colleges, in Hyderabad, he/she automatically qualifies to be a “local” for admission purposes. What does the new rule imply now? The Government has refused to give any clarity on this so far.

 

The Reorganisation Act calls for continuation of the existing pattern of common entrance exams. The Telangana Government is seeking more time to come up with the guidelines for admission process. The engineering, agricultural and medicine entrance test got over in May itself. While the AP Government is insisting on speedy counselling process, KCR wants time till October 30, so that the “process of bifurcation” is fully complete! The Act is very clear, but the Telangana Government insists on wanting more time. There is fear that his Government is contemplating such hare-brained rules for domicile status, as the one decided above.

 

UPA, in its haste, has left open the question of domicile. The pangs of separation are beginning to hurt students who will suffer for no fault of theirs, but for a decision of their grandfather or great-grand fathers! Quite obviously, the AP Government is taking up the issue. The sad part is that KCR continues to fan the “our children” versus “other children” rivalry.

 

Who controls Law and Order in Hyderabad?

 

The Act is very clear – “The Governor shall, after consulting the Council of Ministers of Telangana, exercise his individual judgement” with respect to issues of law and order in Hyderabad; and “The decision….shall not be called into question”.

 

One of the first things the Government of Telangana did after coming to power was to demolish illegal buildings in certain areas of Hyderabad. The TDP took up this issue saying that KCR is purposely destroying properties of people belonging to Andhra regions! They immediately called for handing over of law and order in Hyderabad to the Governor because the properties of people from Andhra are at stake! While the Act clearly states that the Governor exercises control, it is yet to be seen to be happening on the field. The Telangana Government is insisting that the control should lie with them and not the Governor.

 

For the record, it is a welcome move to demolish illegal buildings – so please don’t see this article as supporting the argument of TDP! The key issue is that the issues mentioned in the Act are not being implemented on the ground.

 

What about power?

 

The Act stipulates that all existing Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) shall stay – power distribution will be according to usage and not according to population. This essentially means there will be little or no change in the power distribution process too! However, one of the first things that the AP Government has asked is to cancel these PPAs and enter into new ones! AP will be a power surplus State if they get to use all the power generated in AP. To avoid such a situation, the Act basically stipulated a status quo argument. However, AP is not happy with it and is insisting on new agreements. The Modi Government has rejected this move by AP Government, but this issue continues to be a bone of contention.

 

It’s been just about 50 days since the new States have come into being. A clarity is yet to emerge on various issues – something that both the Chief Ministers make at every available opportunity. Both CMs are trying to instill confidence in their respective States by speaking of a glorious future. The day-day functioning though inspires little. It remains to be seen how the States will cope up with the pangs of separation.