Rayalseema looks back in regret
Remembering the region’s lost opportunities
The Statesman19 Sep 2013
Stanley Theodore
stanley_theodore@yahoo.com
Hyderabad, 18 September
Rayalaseema is ruing its history, circumstances and fate even as the region fears its future when the state is bifurcated.
The region comprising four districts in south Andhra Pradesh is heavily drought prone. Due to this the British in 1937 had conceived the 300 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) Krishna-Pennar Project on River Krishna through which the region would get 170 TMC and Tamil Nadu, Madras city, would get 130 TMC. Then Rayalaseema was part of the Madras Presidency.
But Rayalaseema lost the project when the basics of Andhra state were being worked out. “Had this project gone ahead we would have been better off than the rice bowl districts of east and west Godavari, Krishna and Guntur,” state Twenty Point Programme chairman Tulasi Reddy told The Statesman.
The region saw it as a boon when the state’s first capital was based in Kurnool. Very quickly this changed with leaders finding the "twin cities" a far better option as it already had the necessary infrastructure for a capital, thanks to the Nizam operating from here.
“Now looking at the development of Hyderabad it is certain that Kurnool would have witnessed at least 50 per cent of this development had we not given up our claims over the capital. The other three districts would have benefited as well,” AP Road Transport Corporation Employees union president, Mr C Chandrashekar Reddy, said.
What hurt them equally was losing Bellary to Karnataka when the state was reorganised in the 1950s. “We lost Thungabhadra Dam, which would have compensated us to a large extent for the loss of the Krishna-Pennar project,” Mr Reddy said.
The loss of Bellary also meant that Rayalaseema lost the district which has 25 per cent of the nation’s iron ore deposits. The mining scam by the Reddy brothers threw open to the world the mineral wealth in the region.
“No matter which way you look at it, we have lost. And to make things worse successive governments neglected this region. Even the Justice Srikrishna Committee report has made it clear that we are more backward than Telangana. And now with the bifurcation we are being asked to leave Hyderabad,” Mr Tulasi Reddy said.
Remembering the region’s lost opportunities
The Statesman19 Sep 2013
Stanley Theodore
stanley_theodore@yahoo.com
Hyderabad, 18 September
Rayalaseema is ruing its history, circumstances and fate even as the region fears its future when the state is bifurcated.
The region comprising four districts in south Andhra Pradesh is heavily drought prone. Due to this the British in 1937 had conceived the 300 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) Krishna-Pennar Project on River Krishna through which the region would get 170 TMC and Tamil Nadu, Madras city, would get 130 TMC. Then Rayalaseema was part of the Madras Presidency.
But Rayalaseema lost the project when the basics of Andhra state were being worked out. “Had this project gone ahead we would have been better off than the rice bowl districts of east and west Godavari, Krishna and Guntur,” state Twenty Point Programme chairman Tulasi Reddy told The Statesman.
The region saw it as a boon when the state’s first capital was based in Kurnool. Very quickly this changed with leaders finding the "twin cities" a far better option as it already had the necessary infrastructure for a capital, thanks to the Nizam operating from here.
“Now looking at the development of Hyderabad it is certain that Kurnool would have witnessed at least 50 per cent of this development had we not given up our claims over the capital. The other three districts would have benefited as well,” AP Road Transport Corporation Employees union president, Mr C Chandrashekar Reddy, said.
What hurt them equally was losing Bellary to Karnataka when the state was reorganised in the 1950s. “We lost Thungabhadra Dam, which would have compensated us to a large extent for the loss of the Krishna-Pennar project,” Mr Reddy said.
The loss of Bellary also meant that Rayalaseema lost the district which has 25 per cent of the nation’s iron ore deposits. The mining scam by the Reddy brothers threw open to the world the mineral wealth in the region.
“No matter which way you look at it, we have lost. And to make things worse successive governments neglected this region. Even the Justice Srikrishna Committee report has made it clear that we are more backward than Telangana. And now with the bifurcation we are being asked to leave Hyderabad,” Mr Tulasi Reddy said.
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