RAW DEAL FOR RAYALASEEMA? Prior to N Chandrababu Naidus maiden cabinet meeting as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh last week, the writing on the wall seemed extremely clear: his ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) would not repeat the mistake commitment by previous governments of undivided AP. That it would not, at any cost, put all its eggs in one basket, i.e. Hyderabad, and instead champion the cause of multi-city development across the regions of the new state of AP. Cut to post the marathon meet and all the talk about equitable development appear to have been conveniently forgotten. Leaders who spoke passionately about this model of growth earlier have now fallen silent and instead given in to the governments decision to rain boons on just two locations: Visakhapatnam and the Vijayawada-Guntur stretch. That the backward areas of Prakasam or the four expansive districts of Rayalaseema region have been completely ignored does not seem to bother the netas anymore. A glance through Naidus roadmap indicates that the Vijayawada region, touted to house the administrative capital of AP, is set to emerge as the focal point of government agencies including state trans port, railways, fire services, among others, while Vizag will be home to the IT/ Pharma/Tourism/Film hub, together with universities and a dedicated petro zone. The two cities will also be upgraded to the status of “mega city“. Of course, a similar “mega city“ promise has been showered on Tirupati too and a mention of “smart cities“ in every district has also been made; but political analysts feel, it isnt enough. “The smart city initiative is a central government project and will be extended to 100 cities across India. For Naidu to hope that he will bag 13 of them, is overly ambitious,“ said an analyst reiterating the new CMs lack of vision for the rest of the state. Predictably then, people from the developed-starved districts Prakasam and Anantapur are a worried lot. They fear that the `oneupmanship battle between leaders of VijayawadaGuntur and Vis a k h a p a t n a m , in `grabbing’ all important projects, could spell doom for them. That’s also because the elected representatives from these districts have failed to fight on their behalf. If readily available infrastructure is the only criteria for new projects, then no town except Vijayawada and Vizag can get any key project,“ rued senior educationist Prof Ramakrishna. Sounding a word of caution, he said that if Naidu continues with this model of growth, another agitation like the Telangana movement might soon raise its ugly head from these neglected districts. Puttaparthi (Anantapur_is located in close proximity to Bangalore and has the advantage of an airport and a world-class hospital. So it can well be developed into an IT zone. We need not look at Vizag alone,“ pointed out M Vemaiah, Anantapur district CPI leader, further demanding that the district be made the second capital of AP. epaperbeta.timesofindia//Article.aspx?eid=31809&articlexml=RAW-DEAL-FOR-RAYALASEEMA-15062014002055&Mode=1
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 05:01:56 +0000
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