It’s not a question of IF, but how

Jayaprakash Narayan backs T State in no uncertain terms, pleads for Rayalaseema

Impassioned call

• Geographical boundaries can’t divide Telugu people
• They should explore mutually beneficial collaboration
• Flays Centre’s unilateral method, ignoring concerns
• It has to provide guarantees on sops to Seemandhra
• Explains how States the size of Seema are flourishing better than it
• Rayalaseema needs focus anda special category status

Hyderabad: Lok Satta Party National President Jayaprakash Narayan on Saturday expressed his unequivocal support for the formation of Telangana.

Participating in the debate on the draft T Bill, he said while he was in favour of division of the State, he was opposed to the manner in which the Union Government sought to divide the state. He said the Centre had adopted dictatorial and unilateral method and that almost all parties had been guilty of exploiting the political crisis for narrow political gains. Now, that Telangana formation is round the corner, it is necessary for all political parties to focus their energies on ensuring justice to all the three regions in the State, he said.

He rued that Andhra Pradesh had lost a decade of growth because of bickering over Telangana. “Enough is enough. We should not let others make us fight like cats and dogs. Years of strife and stress had cost the State dearly. We cannot have another decade of paralysis and decline,” JP said.

JP said the Telangana movement had gained momentum as the successive governments did not honour the various agreements that were arrived at including the Gentlemen’s Agreement. Though it was decided that if the Chief Minister belonged to one region, the Deputy Chief Minister should be from the other region, it was never implemented properly. This resulted in disparities in regard to employment, education, health and other issues which gave a fillip to the movement and people got divided on the basis of region.

JP said it was necessary to address issues like revenue deficits of Seemandhra and work out a firm and time-bound plan for development of Telangana. In case of Seemandhra, he said the Centre should give a firm commitment to development of infrastructure, setting up of educational institutes (IIT/IIM/AIMS/ IIIT/Tribal University etc) within a stipulated time-frame and guaranteed commitment to Polavaram project and Ramayapatnam port.

He said this was necessary because Rayalaseema had been backward though majority of the Chief Ministers had come from the region.

He said Centre should accord Special Category Status to Rayalaseema region which would be badly impacted in terms of revenue by the State’s bifurcation. While Hyderabad city had Rs 13,000 crore revenue surplus, Rayalaseema comprising 4 districts and with 15 million population had Rs 7,000 crore deficit during 2012-13. The proposed pay revision this year would take Rayalaseema’s deficit to Rs. 9,000 crore. The region would not have enough revenue to pay even staff salaries.

The Special Category status would turn Rayalaseema into a tax haven in that there would be central excise and corporate income tax exemptions. Although there are 11 Special Category States in India, there is none in the peninsular India. Being on the Chennai-Bangalore corridor, the resource-poor Rayalaseema can be the new Dubai attracting investments from all southern and western States. All Telugu-speaking people and the entire peninsular India would gain from it, he observed.

Jayprakash Narayan said no political party was remotely worried or concerned about these issues. He said the only solution to the mess created by the UPA was to focus on development of both Seemandhra and Telangana. This formula, he said, would create a win-win situation for all the three regions of the State and facilitate their socio-economic growth. JP said that the AP Bifurcation Bill carries provisions which are patently unconstitutional.

Its provisions for residuary Andhra Pradesh are vague and non-binding. He would move amendments when the Assembly takes up clause-by-clause discussion. He underlined that a change in the boundaries of States should not undermine economic growth among people of different regions. “States may be many, but Telugu people will remain as one,” he said. A change in the State’s boundaries or the capital will not improve people’s lives unless core problems like the very nature of politics, centralization of power, corruption and poor service delivery are addressed he said.

Seemandhra MLAs feel that there has been marked change in the stand taken by Lok Satta on the T issue after its national president Jayaprakash Narayan visited Delhi recently and had talks with several leaders including AAP president Arvind Kejriwal.