Telangana
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The Times of India 2013/07/31 [1] [2] [3] Ch Sushil Rao,TNN | Feb 22, 2014
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Telangana
2June 2014: Telangana is born
On June 2, 2014 Telangana formally came into existence. K Chandrasekhar Rao was designated to the state's first chief minister.
Telangana became the 29th state of India. Hyderabad is to be common capital for 10 years
PTI | Jul 30, 2013
NEW DELHI: Telangana is the 29th state of India comprising 10 districts with plenty of water and some other natural resources in a backward region lacking development that was at the heart of the separate state demand.
The jewel in the crown is the city of Hyderabad, which may for some time, at least 10 years to start with, be the joint capital for the rest of Andhra.
With a population of over 3.5 crore in 2013, the new state comprising mostly the areas of the princely Nizam state will have 17 Lok Sabha seats and 119 assembly seats.
The Telangana movement
On November 1, 1953 a separate Andhra state was carved out of the then Madras state. The demand at that time from the Telugus was that Madras (now Chennai) should go to Andhra state. That was not to be. The new Andhra state got Kurnool as the capital. The capital, however, was shifted to Hyderabad later.
Telangana protesters this time made it clear that they could not imagine Telangana without Hyderabad which was part of it for centuries.
The demand for a separate identity for Telangana is virtually as old as the state of Andhra Pradesh, which came into existence in November 1956 through the States Reorganisation Act.
The united Andhra Pradesh government’s website said: "Telangana agitation was started by the people of the region when they felt that Andhra leaders had flouted the Gentlemen's Agreement which facilitated the formation of Andhra Pradesh.
"In the beginning, the movement demanded the implementation of the safeguards agreed upon earlier, but later it wanted the separation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh."
Disinclination in Delhi for sixty years
Protesters demanding Telangana did not get the needed support from Delhi for their demand for a separate state in the past. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru understood the demand for a separate Telangana state but when it came to taking the decision, he took a step back. The agitation for a separate Telangana state intensified in 1969 and a few hundred people were killed in the agitation.
If Jawaharlal Nehru did not show interest in carving a separate Telangana state, neither did his daughter Indira Gandhi. Though the agitation intensified during her rule, Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister also made it clear that she was not in favour of a separate Telangana state.
Change of mind in Delhi
What she did not do, her daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi has done for Telangana. Sonia Gandhi as UPA chairperson and as president of the Congres party lent support to the Telangana cause. It took some years for her to decide but decide she did, in favour of Telangana.
During the 2004 elections, Sonia Gandhi had shared the dais with Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader K Chandrasekhara Rao saying that she understood the sentiments of the Telangana people. The 'understanding' did not go beyond that and there was no action then. Now, in 2014, the UPA government has granted Telangana.
In the 2010s, scores of youth committed suicide in the Telangana region. Protesters, who came under a common banner irrespective of their political affiliation, brought the state to a grinding halt on several occasions. The protests in Telangana were matched with protests from the Andhra and Rayalaseema regions but eventually, Parliament favoured a separate Telangana state. This, despite the assembly not favouring a division.
Territory
The new Telangana state comprises of the 10 districts of Hyderabad, Medak, Adilabad, Khammam, Karimnagar, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad, Rangareddy and Warangal.
According to the Backward Regions Grant Fund 2009-10, 13 districts in united Andhra Pradesh have been identified as being backward, of which nine are in Telangana.
Classified as a semi-arid region with a predominantly hot and dry climate, Telangana is not amongst the most fertile regions of the country.
Telangana: Economy
T will rank high on GDP table: Srikrishna report
Subodh Ghildiyal | TNN
The Times of India 2013/07/31
New Delhi: Telangana will be an economically viable state, with or without Hyderabad. This was the opinion of the Srikrishna Commission, which studied the vexed issue of Telangana statehood and made a regionwise study of economic parameters in Andhra Pradesh before concluding the new state would be able to sustain itself economically.
The official study attested to the claims of viability made by T-proponents — the sheer size of Telangana with 10 districts and 17 Lok Sabha seats makes it an independent entity.
Telangana would rank 15th among 29 states in terms of GDP and would be above Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and the north-eastern states. This is without the jewel in the crown, Hyderabad, which is an employment and investment hub.
The per capita income in Telangana is “a notch higher” than the national average while with Hyderabad, it would rank 13th in GSDP and also in per capita terms.
The statistics may not tell the complete, or real, story but they do point to the potential of the proposed state, a reason why the commission vouched for its viability.
The T-advocates have long said an even-handed treatment would help the state exploit its irrigation and power potential and help increase farm output as well as industrialization in the dry patch of land.
In fact, Srikrishna Commission debunked the claim of “backwardness” as a reason for statehood, demonstrating that Rayalaseema was the worst off among the three regions of the state. In fact, while Telangana has a long distance to cover, statistics show it is not unviable in terms of economic parameters.
Instead, the challenge before Telangana would be to remove intra-regional disparity. Backwardness across Telangana is about the gap between “haves” and “have-nots” than about allround poverty.
Telangana will rank 15th among 29 states in terms of GDP and would be above Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Goa and the north-eastern states
The high ratio of dalits, tribals (24.7%) and weaker OBCs in T-population shows that wealth is concentrated in fewer hands and requires serious steps to remove inequities.
Telangana: A Factfile
IANS | Jul 30, 2013
HYDERABAD: Here are some of the facts about Andhra Pradesh's Telangana region, which is all set to become a separate state.
- Telangana means "land of Telugus" and it was part of the erstwhile princely state of Hyderabad.
- Hyderabad State became part of India in 1948 after an operation by the Indian Army as Nizam wanted to keep the state independent. Telangana became a state of Telugu-speaking people and was known as Hyderabad State till 1956 when it was merged with Andhra State, carved out of Madras province, to form Andhra Pradesh.
- Number of districts in Telangana: 10 — Greater Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Medak, Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad and Khammam.
- Geography: Has contiguous area bordering coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema (parts of the existing Andhra Pradesh), Karnataka, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
- Area: 114,800 sq. km
- Population: About 35.28 million
- Languages spoken: Telugu and Urdu
- The region situated at a high altitude in an up-land area. Two major rivers Godavari and Krishna flow through the region but most of the land is arid.
- The region sends 119 members to the 294-member Andhra Pradesh assembly and also accounts for 17 of 42 Lok Sabha seats from Andhra Pradesh.
See also
Telangana
