Andhra and Telangana split - Who will be benefitted?

Andhra has three regions, Coastal, Rayalaseema, and Telangana. For the last few years, we are seeing Telangana issue every day in all the news paper. Those who want to have separate state do not understand the problems in the creation of the new state, and the problems after the formation of the state.

It is easy to maintain and develop smaller states when compared to bigger states. If the state is big, it is difficult to do developments in all the regions equally. This is the reason given by all the people who want to have smaller states.

However there are many disadvantages in this approach. It requires thousands of crores to create a new state. Once the new state is formed, many people would be effected by that. If a person has business in both the states, then they will have to pay tax in both the states. For example, If they have vehicles which travel in both the states, they will have to pay road tax in both the states. If any product is produced in one state, by the time it reaches to the consumer of the other state, the price increases. Sometimes, eventhough the consumer does not see the difference, but, dealers and wholesalers would be effected by this. All the educational institutes would be reserved for their state students. In each and every field, there will be significant change, and many people would be effected by that. Many times, they will not realize that, they are not getting good chance because of the partition.

When Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, he formed a committee to come up with the changes to the constitution and ideas for improvements. Many of those suggestions can be found in My Country My Life by L.K.Advani. Vajpayee had implemented whatever he could do with the help of 25 political parties that were supporting BJP. In that one suggestion was, to form district level governments. There will be a district head directly elected by the people. He/she will take care of the entire district needs, and the people does not depend on the CM for small things. The role of Assembly would be restricted to coming up with the policies and high level decisions. Loksatta promised that, if it comes to power, this would be implemented in the state.

Even without all these, if the government uses the present local governments efficiently at the town/Mandal level, we can improve a lot. But, Andhra government is not giving control to the local government. When N.T.Rama Rao was Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, he changed the local government elections to direct elections. By that, it was possible for the people to elect a good person as the Chairman. But, the present Chief Minister Y.S.RajaSekhara Reddy changed it back to indirect elections, and now the people do not have any control in electing a good candidate as the Chairman. In most of the municipalities, the ruling party members can easily become the Chairman, because, Ruling party will have 3-5 extra votes. The ruling party nominates 3 members as ward members, and MLA and MP also have voting power. Because of that, even if the ruling party does not get majority votes out of 25-50 seats, still one of their members can become chairman.

If we fix all the problems in the local government, and transfer funds directly to the local government, then we don't need to split the states unnecessarily. Thousands of crores of money that is required for partitioning can be used for development of the state.

TRS, NTPP, Talli Telangana and many other parties are saying that, if people vote for them, they will get Telangana. Because, people do not know the rules, they say whatever they want. L.K.Advani says in My Country My Life that, for partitioning a state, the parent state has to approve the resolution in the assembly and has to send it to Parliament for approval. Once it is approved by Parliament also, the state will be partitioned. Unless, the resolution is passed in the assembly, center cannot do anything. TDP and Congress are not supporting Telangana, so the bill cannot be passed in the Assembly. Just by winning in all the constitutions in Telangana does not give majority. If TRS, NTPP, and Talli Telangana really want to form a new state, they should contest in Coastal and Rayalaseema regions also, and get the majority.

Till 1995, Hyderabad was not that much developed. In 1995, Chandrababu became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, and after that, he developed so much in IT in Hyderabad. He started Hitech City, and invited many big companies to Hyderabad. He single handedly taken Hyderabad to a very good position. By 2001, Hyderabad was about to take-off in IT. At that time, then Deputy Speaker K.Chandra Sekhar Rao (KCR) started Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for partitioning Andhra Pradesh into Andhra and Telangana. I did not like it at all. Because, KCR started TRS after Chandrababu (from Rayalaseema region) developed Hyderabad (in Telangana region) single handedly from a normal city to must visit place for Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Bill Gates etc. If he had started TRS before developing Hyderabad, I would have appreciated. But, he started immediately after developing the state. So, I never like KCR and TRS. With the experience of KCR, the present Chief Minister Y.S.Raja Sekhar Reddy (YSR) is doing all the development activities in Kadapa (Rayalaseema region). Chandrababu developed Telangana, and if the partition happens, entire Andhra loses so much. YSR does not want to do the same mistake again. So, he is developing rayalaseema region.

KCR is criticizing almost everyone who opposes partitioning. He is unnecessarily conducting Bundhs, and Road blocking activities for each and every small thing. If this continues, then after the partition, Telangana and Andhra become like Karnataka and Tamilnadu which fight for every small thing. That is even more terrible than economic problems described above.

Let's hope that partition does not happen, and at the same time, the state would be developed by utilizing the local government to full extent.

Related Link: Bad Day for Andhra Pradesh