Round-table on TS remote areas

New Delhi: A Roundtable Conference on Development of Remote Areas in Telangana is being organised on July 26 in Hyderabad, by Dr M Channa Reddy Reddy Memorial Trust.

Dr M Channa Reddy Reddy Memorial Trust Secretary M Shashidhar Reddy said the objective is to identify the current fault lines in Telangana; assess past experience; and suggest the way forward to help the Telangana government plan for ushering in rapid socio-economic development of the backward and remote areas of Telangana.

Shashidhar Reddy said that building upon the encouraging security condition in Telangana, it is essential and possible to usher in rapid socio-economic development in the remote areas of the new State. While confident that the State Government will evolve its plans, it was felt that it would be appropriate for Dr M Channa Reddy Memorial Trust, which had in the past, starting from 1998, taken up many issues relating to the development of Hyderabad and Telangana, including with the utilization of Godavari Water, to do some brainstorming on this subject, he said.

“We recollect that 24 years ago, in 1990, the then Chief Minister M Channa Reddy had observed that there have been certain areas, which have not kept pace with the rapid strides, because of their remoteness, inaccessibility and years of continuous neglect. The government has now, possibly, for the first time, thought of a special Action Plan for the development of these remote, inaccessible and hitherto neglected areas. This thought process led to the formulation of the Remote Areas Development Programme (RADP), a Planning Commission-approved programme, with an outlay of Rs 86 crore, over and above the annual plan for 1990-91,” he said.

Officers responsible for the implementation of this programme at that time acknowledge that it had a tremendous impact and is remembered even to this day. The thrust was short-lived and lost momentum, with Dr Channa Reddy being replaced as Chief Minister at the end of 1990.

In the recent past, there have been efforts by successive governments of the erstwhile undivided Andhra Pradesh to address the development needs of the people of the backward and remote areas. Two of these are: Remote and Interior Areas Development Programme (RIAD) (2005), overseen by a separate wing of the General Administration Department (GAD) and the Commission for Development of Backward Areas of Andhra Pradesh (2008).

“More importantly, what needs to be noticed here is that, together, these various development initiatives have had an impact, though it is difficult to quantify the same,” Shashidhar Reddy added.