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100 days of Telangana
A grim tale of two states
Statehood for Telangana came after much struggle. Now, the state and residuary Andhra Pradesh are facing serious issues. As Telangana
Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao completes 100 days in office, The Tribune looks at the challenges following the bifurcation.
By Suresh Dharur
CharMinar: The division of AP has caused a financial crunch and uncertainty over Hyderabad as capital. |
Completion
of 100 days in office can be a symbolic milestone for governments, but for the newly created Telangana and the truncated Andhra Pradesh, it goes much beyond the symbolic value. Grappling with post-bifurcation blues, including bitter wrangle over sharing power and water and staff allocation, the two states are facing a plethora of daunting challenges.While residuary Andhra Pradesh is still undecided where to build a permanent new capital and is bogged down by severe resource crunch, Telangana state is struggling to find ways to implement populist schemes like loan waiver for farmers and to measure up to the hopes raised by the statehood movement. Guiding the destiny of the country’s newest state, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is struggling to transform from a rabble-rousing champion of the statehood movement to a responsible administrator. The political rancour and bitterness that had marked the Telangana agitation is refusing to go away post-bifurcation, with the two states finding themselves on a collision course on several issues. Hyderabad being the common capital for the two states for 10 years has further added bitterness to the political war of words.
Resource crunch After leading an emotional statehood struggle on the ground that the under-development in Telangana was a result of deliberate neglect by successive governments for six decades, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government faces an onerous task of putting development on a fast track. Its main welfare agenda involves waiver of farm loans, free education from KG to postgraduation, enhancement of pensions, job creation, special schemes for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and minorities and two-bedroom houses for the poor. However, none of them has taken off due to severe resource crunch. With the Reserve Bank of India refusing to reschedule the loans availed by farmers, the government is struggling to mobilise resources to meet the loan waiver burden of Rs 17,000 crore. Blending boldness with populism, Chandrasekhar Rao has earned the reputation for being a tough task master and his style of governance so far has been aggressive and firm in many ways. However, his government’s intensive household survey, covering nearly 4 crore population of the state on a single day, drew flak and raised fears that it was meant to target the settlers in Hyderabad on nativity issue. After assuming office on June 2, amidst new hope and optimism, Rao made one populist announcement after the other, including subsidies to the poor and business-friendly climate for industrial promotion. However, as the euphoria over state formation subsided, the harsh realities of power crisis and resource crunch have come to the fore. It remains to be seen how the TRS government garners resources to under-write the loans or fulfil a long list of promises that includes construction of houses for the poor, allotment of 3 acres to Dalits and payment of Central scales to government employees. The TRS government is also set on a collision course with the Centre on the contentious issue of empowering the Governor to supervise law and order in Hyderabad. It has also raised political temperatures by fixing 1956 as the cut-off date for determining nativity of students seeking fee reimbursement. There are allegations that the intensive household survey was meant to identify Andhra settlers in Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana and exclude them from all welfare schemes. Following delay in the allocation of All India Service officers to the state, the Telangana Government is yet to hold the budget session of the Assembly and prioritise its spending. Despite its announcement that an investor-friendly policy would be unveiled soon, it is likely to face a tough time in attracting fresh investments into the power-deficit state. Intolerant to media criticism While Telangana sentiment may have helped the TRS at the height of the statehood agitation, the continued tendency to stoke regional fires is becoming its undoing in its new avatar as the ruling party in the new state. The government drew flak over the ban imposed on two popular Telugu television channels by cable operators across the state for their alleged “anti-Telangana content”. Though the government sought to distance itself from the decision, it is widely believed that the MSOs could not have taken the two channels off the air without the consent of the government. Capital woes In his third stint as Chief Minister, though now of a truncated Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu looks a pale shadow of his former self. In his previous tenures as Chief Minister of the united state, from 1995 to 2004, Naidu was credited with implementing bold reforms and developing Hyderabad as a favoured international information technology destination. However, he is now bogged down by resource crunch and uncertainty over the new capital. Naidu feels that the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh was done in an unscientific, clumsy and politically motivated manner and faces a gigantic task of developing residuary Andhra Pradesh “from scratch”. Losing Hyderabad to Telangana is something that is hard to compensate, he says. Though a temporary capital would be set up near the prosperous coastal Andhra city of Vijaywada, there is still no clarity on the location of the permanent capital. Naidu’s decision to choose Vijayawada as a temporary location for the new capital ran contrary to the recommendations of the Sivaramakrishnan Committee constituted by the Centre. The five-member panel had suggested a “cluster approach” instead of a centralised capital and favoured the development of hubs across various towns. Immediately after the mega oath-taking function near Vijayawada on June 8, Naidu signed files giving effect to five decisions — waiver of farm loans, hike in old-age and widow pensions, supply of 20 litres of mineral water for Rs 2, scrapping of unauthorised liquor vends and raising the employees’ retirement age to 60 years. However, loan waiver, the most important among them, is yet to take off. The financial burden is pegged at Rs 42,000 crore. Apart from this, the state needs massive funds for building the new capital and other infrastructure. Andhra Pradesh would get lesser tax and non-tax revenue (Rs 40,799 crore) than Telangana (Rs 44,754 crore) though their population ratio is 58:42. Worse still, Andhra Pradesh would be saddled with a debt burden of Rs 92,461 crore against Rs 68,553 crore of Telangana. Naidu has released seven white papers to highlight how Andhra Pradesh was left in shambles due to the “mindless manner” in which the previous UPA government divided the state. The RBI firmly refused to oblige the state’s request for loan waiver. Blanket waiver, the apex bank said, would benefit only the defaulters and spawn similar proposals in other states. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan wanted the state government to reimburse banks in hard cash and not through the issue of bonds. The government is now planning to pool in the money by auction of red sandal wood, sale of river sand and levy of a cess on liquor and transport revenue. Of the state’s annual budget of Rs 1.11 lakh crore, the non-plan expenditure like salaries, pensions and loan servicing account for Rs 85,151 crore, leaving just Rs 26,673 crore for development. Poll promises take backseat
The move to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and create a separate state of Telangana had faced a lot of resistance. AFP file photo |
Though Naidu’s main asset was his pre-poll alliance with the BJP, his role at the Centre is insignificant, given the numerical strength of the saffron party. There is no scope for the Centre to bail out the TDP government in the loan waiver issue nor are there any hopes of getting generous Central funding for the new capital. The TDP president has to fight his own battles and be accountable for fulfilling his election promises. He needs to keep reminding himself that the TDP had supported bifurcation and it was he who promised farmers that he would write off their loans. While Telangana enjoys a head start in the development race with Hyderabad in its kitty, Andhra Pradesh faces a daunting challenge of building a city on a par with Hyderabad. Except for the passage of Bill that transferred submergence villages from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh paving the way for the construction of the Polavaram multipurpose project, there is no big gain from the Centre. The promised special category status and special development package for seven backward districts are yet to materialise. Naidu has unveiled a vision of transforming Andhra Pradesh into “sunrise Andhra Pradesh” through seven missions and five grids encompassing vital sectors, besides building a new world-class capital. His grand vision includes 24/7 power supply to domestic and industrial sectors, a string of three megacities, 14 smart cities, a dozen minor ports, airports and IT hubs. However, it is not clear how his government would mobilise funds to make these dreams a reality.
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