Chandrababu chants development mantra

After hankering over the loss of Hyderabad as its launching pad, the (residual) Andhra Pradesh, led by 65 year old Nara Chandrababu Naidu, has once again chosen the ‘digital route’ to regain its past glory.

“My heart bleeds that lakhs of people of Andhra have now to look at Bangalore, Chennai for growth and not Hyderabad” says Naidu to his party men while delivering his inaugural address after poll victory. Thus, he vows to develop a city befitting Hyderabad, says a political analyst.

Of course, Naidu cannot dismiss the importance of agriculture, as Andhra is predominantly agriculture state, and even he maintains its prominence in his budget, delivered recently, by providing enough provision to the welfare and developmental options of farmers. After coming to terms with the Telangana Chief Minister in the presence of Governor ESL Narasimhan recently, Naidu now turned his focus on to the development of the state. While he wanted to fully exploit and utilise his presence (for 10 years) in Hyderabad to promote the economic growth of Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, the residual Andhra Pradesh has no city worth mentioning, which has the social and economic infrastructure to suite multi-national companies to set up the factories. The investment consultants say that first the government needs to identify one specific city for an aggressive industrial growth and put singlepoint-focus on it in terms of creating social infrastructure like: local transport facilities, water and drainage systems, creating support staff like office-boys, security guards, besides clerical, creating world class medical facilities, etc, besides enhancing the air, rail, road and sea linkages to that the city where the industry to thrive. Hence, Naidu may quickly have to resolve the issue of state Capital before picking up the city for Industry.

Unlike Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, Naidu has to face a strong opposition from Janganmohan Reddy, who is a vigilant politician and capable of turning any short-coming in his favour. Naidu, known for his planning, has already released six white papers, more or less a guidance papers to initiate a mega operation on what and how to resurrect the crucial sectors: power, irrigation, governance, finance, agriculture and industry. And the common thread among these papers is: rejuvenating the dead horse, Andhra Pradesh, minus Hyderabad. For which, Chandrababu Naidu is totally dependent on the BJP’s towering leader from south, M Venkaiah Naidu, whose responsibility is to convince the Modi government and obtain special package for industry as promised during bifurcation and also included in the AP Reorganisation Act. Of course, the BJP led NDA government has promised all support – before elections and after elections – but onus lies on Telugu Desam Party in general and Chandrababu Naidu in particular to frame the policies and executive them, although the Chief Minister get the support of all and sundry in his endeavor. According to the officials, the NRI's and IT giants are running after him for incentives in order to set up shops in tier-2 and tier-3 towns. But the analysts are of opinion that the need of the hours is not just investments, the government has to assure the people that they could tide over the present crisis and stand on their own.

“The government should prepare the people of AP to play specific roles in the development of the state, who were earlier dormant players,” an analyst who is associated with rating agency said. The state is blessed with 970 kms of coast in Coastal Andhra and 285 kms of mining plains in Rayalaseema region. These strengths required to be exploited to the advantage of the people and take the economy upward.

To have a cursory view of the strengths, the districts Srikakulam and Nellore can be developed for power generation by cutting down pollution and exploiting the sea water. Similarly, Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts are capable of developing IT hubs and chemical corridors. Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam can be programmed to become maritime zones and Chitoor and Kadapa can offer scope for variety of SEZs. In a nutshell, AP has to do, is to keep its eggs in more than one basket, rather than all in one.