Hyderabad: On Friday, Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states and other AICC leaders seemed surprised when Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy urged AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi not to go ahead with the state bifurcation as it would spell disaster for the party in the upcoming general elections.
Reddy also informed the Congress vice-president that public attendance in the thanksgiving meetings that were being organised in Telangana to honour AICC president Sonia Gandhi were also poor. That, coupled with the Narendra Modi wave and the TRS stealing the Congress’ thunder regarding bifurcation, meant that the party could not be sure of securing maximum seats even in Telangana.
Gandhi had convened the party Chief Ministers’ meeting in New Delhi on Friday to ask them to give more impetus to the drive ag-ainst corruption, take up more pro-poor schemes, and to effecti-vely execute the welfare projects taken up by the UPA-II government.
He also wanted to know the ground-level political situations in the respective states, including possibilities of tie-ups with like-minded parties.
Reddy had exclusive talks with Gandhi on the sidelines of the meeting and urged him to reverse the Tela-ngana decision so that he could ensure a respectable number of seats for the Congress in the state upcoming polls.
T meet turnouts poor, says Kiran
Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy said that even the thanksgiving meetings organised by Telangana Congress leaders did not go off well in as the turnouts for the meetings had been poor.
He did not seek an appointment with Congress president Sonia Gandhi this time too. He has not met the party chief since July 12 meeting of the Congress Core Committee, when he had made his presentation for the united AP cause.
Sources said that when Mr Reddy’s turn came to speak in the meeting, he said that with the recent decision by the Centre to carve out Telangana, the political situation in the state had completely changed and there was no guarantee that the Congress would have a respectable showing in the coming elections owing to the bifurcation.
According to him, the Congress would not repeat its 2009 performance in Telangana (50 Assembly and 12 Lok Sabha seats), let alone the landslide win that the party high command was expecting for granting T state.
He reportedly observed that despite his repeated requests to keep the state united, the high command had acted in haste and decided to divide AP. He said that despite his government introducing several schemes, which had significantly decreased the anti-incumbency factor, the bifurcation decision had made matters worse.
He reported that TRS men were claiming credit for creation of Telangana.
He also reportedly informed that the Narendra Modi factor and TRS activists taking credit for the Telangana state were also impacting the Telangana voter.
Mr Reddy informed the leaders that there was widespread resentment in Seemandhra over the bifurcation decision, otherwise things would have been entirely different in the upcoming elections.
Regarding taking up pro-poor measures, particularly the food security scheme, Mr Reddy informed that the AP government had been supplying food grains at Rs 1 per kg. He also distributed a booklet containing various programmes and schemes in this regard.
After keeping mum for sometime, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has once again raised voice against the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh to form a separate Telangana. He cautioned millions of farmers in Seemandhra and Telangana regions of the serious consequences of division of the state.
According to him, the bifurcation was done without addressing key issues of water, power and infrastructure, which could lead to deficit and bigger problems. He fears the lapses in water distribution would erupt.In Andhra Pradesh, the dams located in one region serve the needs of other region. For example, Srisailam dam is located in Rayalaseema, but it serves the irrigation needs of Rayalaseema, Telangana and Andhra regions. So, Kiran is worried as how can that waters be shared. Telangana comprises 68 pc of the catchment area of the Krishna river and 79 pc catchment area of Godavari river. Utilising these resources for the development of the region will be a big challenge for the state.Andhra Pradesh's major rivers include Godavari, Krishna and Pennar. According to the Krishna tribunal award, Maharashtra gets 560 tmc feet of water, Karnataka 700 TMC and Andhra Pradesh 811 TMC. The Srisailam and Nagarjunasagar dams are central to the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh. (1 TMC equals 28.3 billion litres).The Nagarjunasagar dam is right on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and caters to the irrigation needs of Andhra and Telangana. Kiran feels the new state would badly hit irrigation projects.Godavari is less exploited as compared with Krishna and most of the water flows into the Bay of Bengal. The Godavari Waters Disputes Tribunal in 1975 awarded 1,480 TMC to Andhra Pradesh, but proponents of separate Telangana are demanding more than 60 pc of that water share.As for agriculture is concerned, Seemandhra regions are better irrigated and account for 60 pc of total crops cultivated in Andhra Pradesh. Telangana has over 65 pc agriculture pumpsets. But with Telangana expected to face at least 40-50 pc power shortage, the irrigation projects will be affected.Currently in Andhra Pradesh, the power generation is only 57 million units per day against a demand of 115 MU. Though Telangana boasts of major coal deposits, Seemandhra has more gas-based stations with higher installed capacity of power. The Ramagundam thermal power station is in Telangana but is controlled by the Centre.Kiran accused TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao of misleading farmers with a promise to bring 10,000 MW from Chhattisgarh since the installed capacity of the neighbouring state was only 6300 MW.Before bifurcating the state, the Centre, Kiran feels, must have clarity on the status of Hyderabad, which several people from Seemandhra made their home after the formation of AP decades ago.Even as APNGO members are protesting against shifting of the secretariat employees to Seemandhra, Kiran rejected the TRS statistics and said out of 18,856 employees identified as non-locals under GO 610, 9,174 were repatriated and 4,062 were exempted as per the rules.As the capital of united AP for nearly 60 years, Hyderabad city has witnessed enormous growth and transformed into a large metropolis. In the process, many other regions of the State have been neglected. People from Andhra and Rayalaseema are heavily dependent on Hyderabad for health facilities, education and employment opportunities.
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