By: Soonya
Now that the dust is settled in on the formation of Telangana as the 29th state in the Indian Union, it is paramount that we do not let the steam off and relax.
Nothing is done till it is done as the adage goes.
Prof Jayashankar and his mission and the thousands of lives that we lost in the struggle for Telangana would have been wasteful unless we did something make the whole struggle meaningful.
While the political class can keep blaming and claiming success and their contribution to the new state formation, it is critical that those of us who do not care for political points to score or expect any personal pelf or profit from the new state must focus on re-building Telangana.
In my sense, it takes anywhere from 1 decade to 2 decades. Some of us are young at heart and others are young. But I feel that next 2 decades if we can focus on development of Telangana, we would have done our job.
Firstly, I personally wish that Prof Kodandaram and Mallepalli Laxmaiah and others do not abandon the JACs. Instead they must rejuvenate them.
We must come up with debates and discussions so that we define an agenda that is people’s agenda. We must define what does it take to build a modern state and define it from people’s perspective. WE must define a citizen’s charter.
We must invigorate and enthuse the thousands of self-driven JAC’s and empower them with local agenda’s that form part of the development plan for Telangana.
We must create the ideas and ideology that are needed for nation building.
We must be careful that no crony capitalists are created in the New Telangana.
I am sure there are enough corrupt politicians and wannabe business people who emulate the crony capitalist class the Seemandhra ruling dispensation created.
I see Hyderabadi netas and the ilk already staking claims. There will be many more.
The consciousness created by the movement must not be led to waste.
The next 3 to 4 governments must focus on development. We must aim for the best in the world.
Our human development index must be comparable to the best in Europe. We must eliminate illiteracy in 10 years time. We must ensure that women are empowered and no woman should get married before 18 years. We must ensure that all population has a minimum of highschool education.
And no one should get poorer because of healthcare needs.
We must ensure that 30% of our area is forested or have forests.
There ought to be enough public transport so that private transportation is minimized. There must be enough space both lung space and walking space for our elders and space for our children to play.
We need to figure out a way to value our heritage and not demolish ‘buildings’ as routine for ‘development’. Telangana has lost many monuments and historical buildings. It is a great shame. The Andhra plutocrats had no clue or respect for history. We must protect our legacy and heritage.
We must invest in industry especially in manufacturing and not get carried away by IT alone. While ICT is a wonderful Tech space to invest in, manufacturing prowess makes a state or a country do well over a period of time. Both in terms of technology progress and also in terms poverty alleviation and gini index.
We must encourage sustainable agriculture not just what western science pushes. KCR must be careful because he seems to have bought into the Israeli tech solutions.
We must make health care affordable, and especially must focus on primary health care, the unsexy part of health care. Universal health care coverage must be of prime concern.
We must create many centers of excellence, especially knowledge creating ones. We must shun xenophobia and get the best from the world to help us.
A society is known for the institutions that it create and has. We must have at least 20 world class institutions. Especially we must have not less than 10 world-class universities with adequate funding.
We must create IP and must be the California of India. We must have the largest IP and patents from Telangana.
We must demonstrate to the world how agriculture can be done from semi-arid and arid tropics. Let Israel learn from us. Let middle-east learn from us.
We must be the largest carbon sequestering state in India.
We must invest in green technologies. Let the world learn from us.
We must leverage sustainable energy. Especially solar technology. We must be the place from where renewable technology solutions are learn and bought from.
We must be the seed capital of the world.
If we maintain and develop our cultural heritage, we must have Bathukamma as the Carnival of Life as a global festival and the world must look at traveling to Telangana to participate in it.
Let Hyderabadi Biryani be geo-tagged and patented. So should our other culinary products like Dalcha (there is nothing like it anywhere in the world) and others.
There must be enough money for research in processing millets. We must be destination and source of all millet research in the world.
We must promote the usage of millets ad GoI pushed wheat 4 decades ago.
And Telangana state be at the forefront of leveraging technology. We must be the state where the whole world can look up to in using technology. And where even rural areas must leverage technology and technology leveraged solutions.
Let every service be a call away.
WE must create world-class infrastructure. No district should be away for more than 2 hours. All villages must be connected with all weather roads.
Let us protect our animals and our cows. We must develop special breeding technology to protect our animal heritage.
Our MMR IMR must be comparable to the best in Europe in 5 years.
Here are a few that I am concerned about. Please add your dreams as well.
Jai Telangana. Jayaho Telangana. Jayaho Bharat.