Interview with Vundavalli Arun Kumar And Jaya Sankar

There was an interview with Vundavalli Arun Kumar and Jaya Sankar in Sakshi about Telangana and United Andhra. Vundavalli Arun Kumar clarified all the points raised by Jaya Sankar about Telangana.

Few points in the interview: The text in italics is my commentary.

Vundavalli: There was Telangana movement in 1969, and In 1972, when we had Jai Andhra movement. During that time, there were four Chief Ministers from Telangana. (P.V.Narasimha Rao, Velagam Jangala Rao, Chenna Reddy and Anjaiah). Why did not they give separate Telangana, when we ourselves asked to separate the state. It was Telangana leaders that made us united.

Jaya Sankar: 68.5% of of Krishna River flows in Mahaboobnagar. 70% of fertile land is in Telangana. If we take the catchment area of the river, Telangana should get 68.5% of water. If we take the fertile land, we should get 70%. Bachavath tribunal gave 811 TMC of water to A.P. But, Telangana is getting only 100 TMC. Similarly, 79% of Godavari river is in Telangana. How much are we getting?

Vundavalli: I live on the banks of Godavari, and had seen many floods. When there are floods, I used to feel like, why Telangana people do not stop some water and take it. Every year, more than 3000 TMCs of water is flowing to the sea. Why don't they take that water? The reason is, in telangana, the height with respect to sea level is very high.

The heights with respect to sea level.

In Telangana
Nizamabad - 1296 ft
Warangal - 991 ft
Kareemnagar - 869 ft
Adilabad - 866 ft
Nalgonda - 1381 ft

In Rayalaseema,
Anathapuram - 1099 ft
Chittoor - 1093 ft
Kurnool - 899 ft
Kadapa - 463 ft

In Coastal
Vijayawada - 39 ft
Visakhapatnam - 16 ft
Rajahmundry - 46 ft


If the height is very high, then water has to be lifted. (It is very expensive to lift the water to the height of Telangana area.) Because of less height, even if coastal areas do not want to get water, still, we get lot of water. That is the reason, why there were no projects in Telangana, and many projects on Krishna and Godavari rivers in Coastal areas.

The irrigation area in 1956 and 2004 are as follows (in Lakh acres).

Telangana - 17.51 (1956) - 45.29 (2004) increased by 27.78
Coastal - 41.8 (1956) - 69.98 (2004) increased by 28.18
Rayalaseema - 9.07 (1956) - 16.23 (2004) increased by 7.16

The increase in the irrigation area is almost equal in Telangana and Coastal. In Rayalaseema, the situation is very bad, because of the height with respect to sea level.

Once the Jala Yagnam is finished, then Telangana would get water for another 57.56 lakh acres, Coastal gets 26.47 lakh acres and Rayalaseema gets 20.18 lakh acres. With that, the total irrigation area in telangana would be 102 lakh acres, Coastal - 96 lakh acres, and Rayalaseema - 36 lakh acres

Jaya Sankar: Telangana gets more than 50% of the revenue from excise, forest, mines etc. From the area or population wise, we should get 42%. But, we are not getting our share.

Vundavalli: If we take GDP Growth Rate, Per capita income, IAMR Reports, Human Index, Literacy rate or anything, Telangana is not backwards. For example, lot of water is required for producing rice. Godavari and Krishna districts have been in the first place for a long time. According calculations of FCI in 2009-10, after godavari districts, Kareemnagar is in third place. Nizamabad and Nalgonda are equivalent to Krishna district. If we take the districts which produce least, they are Visakhapatnam, Chittoor, Kadapa, Ananthapur, Prakasam. In the first 5 places, there are three districts of Telangana. In the last 5 districts, there are no districts of Telangana. Telangana is not backwards, and saying that United Andhra is the reason for its backwards is not at all true.

Jaya Sankar: Just take the G.O. that was released four days back. Nabard released Rs.130 crore to Andhra and Rayalaseema, and Rs.9 crore to Telangana. How many times do we have to beg them to give what we should get?

Vundavalli: Neither Central Government nor State Government have rights to spend money in whatever they want. Wherever the money is spent, there is Public Accounts Committee that manages this money. That is headed by opposition party member. That committee has right to validate all the proposals. Probably, the numbers that he is mentioning may be correct. Sometimes, few areas get more funds in few G.O.s and at other times, other areas get more funds. I can show you 100 G.O.s where Telangana got majority of funds. But, can we say that, only Telangana got entire money? For Nabard funds, we are yet to spend lot of money, and talking about it right now may not be correct.

Jaya Sankar: We are always looted in everything including jobs, funds, water etc.

Vundavalli: Was there any cabinet without ministers from Telangana? Did not we conduct elections in Telangana? Did we stop anyone from Telangana in anything? If something did not happen as expected, who should take the responsibility? Are the elected leaders in Telangana not responsible for that? Now, KCR is talking about Telangana. What did he do when he was in a prominent role in TDP at the time of NTR and Chandrababu? If he had really demanded then, atleast few would have solved by now. Did he talk even once about problems in Telangana before forming the party in 2001?

Jaya Sankar: Movement is not just by KCR. We have been doing it for the last 50 years.

Vundavalli: How many times, have you tried to solve the problems of Telangana in democratic way?

Jaya Sankar: Nobody cares even Supreme Court Orders. No need to speak of normal MLAs. Don't you know about the situation of Telangana? Do we have to ask specifically?

Vundavalli: Corruption, Cheating, Looting etc., are there in all the places. It is not specific to Telangana. There are many things done to reduce those. We are somewhat successful in that. That's why this increase in Human Index Rates. There are poor people everywhere. They can be from Vijayanagaram or Anathapuram or Adilabad. Government never considered the people from Coastal, Rayalaseema and Telangana regions differently. But, this has been colored and started injecting into people of Telangana that, "Coastal area people are looting Telagana people".

KCR is a Member of Parliament. He should raise the issues in Parliament. Instead of raising the issues there, he had chosen to do fasting and made the situation so bad. In my opinion, after 2009 elections, he faced problems everywhere. Whether is in the people's judgement, or from their party members. He wanted to be in limelight, and took up this. He knew that only with Telangana movement, he would be observed, and took up this fasting.

Jaya Sankar: Why did Hyderabad became capital of United Andhra? Since, they did not have a capital, and told us that we would have all the rights. That's why we allowed them. Now, they are saying that, they developed the capital, and are asking for making it as union territory. If we have to do that, then make Mumbai, Kolkatha and Chennai as Union territories first, and then ask for Hyderabad.

Vundavalli: When we say, Hyderabad is the capital, it means, we came to your home. For the last 50 years, we thought it as our capital. Eventhough we had problems in 1969 and 1972, still we are staying peacefully till 2000. Everyone knows that Telangana movement is strong in Telangana. But, you should not say that, you would move andhra people out of Telangana, or you would destroy andhra hotels, or you would stop andhra people from making movies.

There is a big difference between Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. When Andhra state is formed, Telugu people had asked for a separate state, and that's why Andhra had to give up Chennai. When Gujarathis asked for a separate state, they had to give up Mumbai. Now, Telangana people want separate state, they are asking andhra people to give up the state. This is ridiculous. If we allow this kind of separation, and if the same thing repeats, then the country would be in very bad situation. For example, Telangana takes Hyderabad completely, and Andhra people formes the capital at Kurnool. After few years, if Rayalaseema people asks for separate state, do coastal area people have to give up capital again? If the same thing happens, and if we form capital at Visakhapatnam, and then if north coastal people demands for a separate state, do South coastal people have to give up the capital again? This is not sustainable. If anybody is asking for a separate state, they have to give up the capital. It should not be made even as Union Territory. The capital should exclusively belong to the people who are not asking for separate state.


Jaya Sankar: To develop the film industry, we gave land, water and current. According to government rules, the land should be used only for the given purpose. But, the andhra people are making it as real estate, and artificially increasing the prices. Because of that, now, we cannot buy any land. They did not encourage the artists of Telangana. Even there also, there is dynasty rule. Don't we have handsome people? Are they heroes, and are we fans? That's why these riots.

Vundavalli: That's why do you stop movie shooting, and destroy everything? There is government in India. Government should take action according to the rules. This is not the reason for riots. This is only an explanation for the riots. The only reason is, they are andhra people. It is absolutely wrong for a political party to support these riots. If we have these many problems even before division, what would be the situation after division?

Does Jaya sankar think that, the producers have so much respect for all the people of andhra, and give chance to only andhra people as the main artists? There is nothing stupid than that. If I am making a movie, without any second thought, I would give main roles to the people I like. Not the favorites of Jaya Sankar or KCR. Most of the time, the people I like would be in my relatives or friends. If I am from andhra, most of my relatives also would be from andhra. If I am from Punjab, then most of my relatives also would be from Punjab. Does he think that, when Allu Aravind is making a movie with a budget of Rs.40 crore, he should give chance to a Telangana person instead of his brother-in-law's son?

Jaya Sankar: This movement is going for the last 10 years. Did we do anything before. Now, only they are doing. Why? Because, they cheated us. If anyone normally comes and stays here, then we welcome them. What we are saying? If you come here for living, we will save you. If you try to rule us, we don't allow you.

Vundavalli: Maoists are extremists. They take lives of people. If you also say that, your philosophy is also same, then there is nothing that I can say. You say democracy, and then you do riots, and then you only say that, you would save us. How is it correct? Who are you to save us? In this country, anyone can go and live anywhere. If you are saying that, you would save in Hyderabad, it means you have created an environment, where one cannot live in Hyderabad. The sentence "We will save you" is itself dangerous. For better administration, we can separate. If you ask andhra people to leave, then obviously, there would be a question of Hyderabad. If you see the history, when andhra was separated from Madras state, people in Madras did not feel insecure. Even now, there are many andhra people in Coimbatore. Till some time back, even the MP there also was of Andhra. When Andhra was separated, there was problem with only language. But, there was no insecure feeling. But, the same thing (security) is not there in Hyderabad. That's why this became the main topic. Otherwise, Hyderabad would have been one of many topics. The real democracy is, in front of crores of Telagana supporters, one person should be able to raise and say that, he would support United Andhra. In the same way, in front of many United Andhra supporters, one person should be able to say, Jai Telangana.

Can anyone say Jai Samaikya Andhra infront of any TRS activist?

Courtesy: Sakshi