The Hyderabad issue in bi-bifurcating the Andhra Pradesh state
By: Nishant Dongari
An impression is sought to be created that the development of twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad has taken place due to funds diversion from Andhra region and hence, thse region want to claim rights on Hyderabad if Andhra Pradesh is divided. It is a travesty of truth and here are few facts.
In the Greater Hyderabad Muncipal Corporation (GHMC), currently 12,500 employees are working and their “entire” salaries are paid from the income generated in the Telangana region. In addition, salaries of the employees working in the Hyderabad Metro Board, Hyderabad Urban Development Association, Public Health, Engineering, Town Planning, Sanitation, Health, Forest, Urban Pollution Controlling, and Irrigation for Water Supply etc. departments are entirely allocated from the income generated from the Telangana region. In the last 55 years, never were funds allocated out of the united A.P. budget for the Hyderabad development. These funds were always taken from the Telangana region.
People’s migration from Andhra region to Hyderabad (capital city) has also resulted in a huge loss to the farmers in the surrounding areas of Hyderabad. This stems from the fact that the water supply to the capital city is forcefully taken from the Osman Sagar lake 25 million gallons per day (MGD), Himayath Sagar lake 20 MGD, Manjeera river 45 MGD, Singur project 65 MGD. All these water resources were earlier used for cultivation in Telangana and they are diverted to the capital city without replacement of appropriate water resources. Industries situated in and around the Hyderabad have polluted the Musi river, which has provided drinking water to Ranga Reddy and Nalgonda districts. All this culminated into huge migration of farmers from Mahaboob Nagar, Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Medak districts to Hyderabad and elsewhere where they ended up as daily labor. In addition, the daily maintenance costs and all the project costs were again taken from the Telangana region‟s income.
The other development activities took place in Hyderabad are also mostly funded by private parties or debts taken from World Bank etc. It is also very important to note that majority of government buildings (Assembly, 1913 and High Court, 1925), universities (Osmania, 1920 and Nizam College, 1884), hospitals (Osmania, 1925 and Niloufer, 1945), infrastructure (Railway station 1874 and Airport 1937), irrigation facilities (all lakes) etc. were built much before the formation of Andhra Pradesh, with the taxes paid from Hyderabad state people. No significant funds are used from the united A.P. budget for the development of infrastructure, which are useful to common people in Hyderabad. Whatever the funds have been allocated, as mentioned above, were mostly taken from the Telangana income. In addition, it is a shameful fact to know that even Hi-Tech city doesn’t has under ground drainage facility and whatever the drainage system exists in Hyderabad, it is built before 1956.
Hence, the arguments/claims of Hyderabad as a common capital are baseless and are mostly put forward by a handful of Seemandhra plutocrats such as real estate magnets and politicians who have their own vested interests in the city.
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About the author: Nishanth Dongari, Lecturer (EC Marie Curie Fellow), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK.
nishanth.uk@gmail.com