Why two states - Hyderabad and Telangana?

In 224 yrs, between 1724-1948 of Nizam rule, Hyderabad State was made up of sixteen districts, grouped into four divisions. Aurangabad division included Aurangabad, Beed, Nanded, and Parbhani districts; Gulbarga division included Bidar, Gulbarga, Osmanabad, and Raichur Districts; Medak division included Atraf-i-Baldah (HYD city), Mahbubnagar, Medak, Nalgonda, and Nizamabad districts, and Warangal division included Adilabad, Karimnagar, and Warangal districts. Nizam gifted away coastal Andhra to French in 1752, later East India Company acquired it in 1766.

During 224 yrs of Nizam rule, only HYD city was directly ruled by Nizams and remaining districts/villages were mostly under the rule of local hindu rulers - patels, doralu, deshmukhs, karnalu, zamindars, etc. and indirectly controlled by Nizams. Being a capital of Hyderabad State, Hyderabad city attracted people from all districts - Kannada, Marathi, and Telangana people. Also attracted people from neighboring British provinces - mostly Andhra, Tamil and Oriya people. All these people have contributed to the social and cultural fabric of present Hyderabad.

In 1956, two divisions Aurangabad and Gulbarga are merged with Maharastra and Karnataka respectively and the other two divisions Medak and Warangal are merged with Andhra region of erstwhile Madras Province to form Andhra Pradesh. In last 54 yrs, Hyderabad city has attracted people from all the districts of Andhra Pradesh and also other states - again mostly from Karnataka, Maharastra, Tamilnadu, Orissa. All these people have made Hyderabad as their home and adopted the pre-1956 culture and also influenced pre-1956 culture with the culture of their origin. And majority of the present Hyderabad citizens do not have any social and cultural relations with Telangana districts. Hyderabad and Telangana regions have got different identities.

One recent example to show the different identities is - After 9th Dec. incidents, Mr. G.Kishan Reddy (Amberpet - HYD city MLA) did not resign where as his partyman, Mr.Y.Laxminarayana(Nizamabad - Telangana MLA) has resigned - they acted according to the sentiments of the people they represent. Because BJP and Mr. Kishan Reddy were not confident of winning the seat again in by-elections as there is no strong telangana sentiment in Amberpet and Hyderabad. They very well know that Hyderabad and Telanagna got different identities and sentiments. Majority of people do not want to join separate telangana, if the A.P state gets bifurcated.

Another recent example is - in 2009 elections, TDP contested elections in alliance with TRS by changing their stand on Telangana issue and Hyderabad people have totally rejected TDP-TRS combine. TDP did not get a single MLA seat in greater hyderabad and Congress and MIM sweeped all MLA seats. Where as in Telangana TDP-TRS combine is a hit and TDP gained a lot and TDP-TRS combine got more MLA seats than Congress.

If we go by they history, culture, society, and democratic demand of the people of Hyderabad and Telangana, we should create two separate states/administrative entities - Hyderabad and Telangana - when Telangana region gets separated from Seemandhra region of Andhra Pradesh.

Two States - Hyderabad and Telangana?

Hyderabad State/UT should be formed out of GHMC for making Separate Telangana State a reality. But the revenue of Hyderabad State/UT should be shared with Telangana State.

While creating smaller states across the nation, cities with more than 60 lakhs population should be made separate states (or) union territories with a condition of revenue sharing with the mother state (or) state-regions.

As you all know, our country is virtually divided as “India” and “Bharat” mostly based on economic condition. Other dividing factors are the culture, education, opportunities for livelihood/employment (globalization), availability of basic amenities like drinking water, drainage, health care, educational institutions, etc.

In my view, Hyderabad represents “India” and the remaing Telangana represents “Bharat”.

“India” and “Bharat” have got very different SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). The bigger Threats “India” got are Terrorist Attacks and Excess Population & Environment Pollution. Where as the bigger Threats “Bharat” got are Poverty and Illiteracy & unemployment (lack of quality education & livelihood ). Bigger Opportunities for “India” are Educated & Skilled work force and Global Market place. Bigger Opportunities for “Bharat” are Natural Resources (fertile farm lands, water bodies and mineral deposits) and under-utilized & unskilled Human Resources.

One of the examples for “India” and “Bharat” concept is Mumbai & Vidharbha
- Mumbai’s 26/11 terrorist attack and inefficient/inadequate administration & government.
- Vidharbha’s agriculture & farmer suicides in last 5-10years period and step-motherly treatment of Maharastra government.

For any state to develop and to have an efficient & effective administration, it has to device govt. policies and administrative priorities according to its own unique SWOT . Hyderabad and Telangana need entirely different govt. policies and administrative priorities.

Hence, I personally prefer the creation of two administrative entities – Hyderabad State/UT and Telangana State - out of our Telangana region. Otherwise, the old exploitation story will continue as most of the exploiters (irrespective of the regions) have already settled in Hyderabad.

Hope I made some sense. Look forward to hear the views and thoughts of the readers of the blog on this subject

India and Indianness is in "Unity in Diversity", Not in keeping States United (undivided)

In this article's (http://eenadu.net/panelhtml.asp?qrystr=htm/panel15.htm) conclusion, author says that J&K should not be divided into three states - Kashmir, Jammu, and Ladhakh. She also say such division will send wrong signals to other Indians and India & Indianness will be weakened. She is not at all bothered about the people's aspiration, issues, problems, cultural & historical diversity, and present demands.

Indianness should be in practice not in geographical boundaries of present states.((భారతీయత ఆచరణలో ఉండాలి కాని భౌగొలికతలొ (ఉన్న రాష్ట్రాలను విభజించకుండా ఉండడం) కాదు!). In practice means, Indian Goverment should give equal importance to all states and respective state goverments should give equal importance to every region & social groups (జాతులు ), which are based on religion, caste, culture, traditions, common historty, language/dialect, etc. in economic & social development, promotion & preservation of culture & heritage, political & administrative respresentation, etc.

Have you ever heard/seen a region (or) a group of people imposing ECONOMIC/TRADE EMBARGO on another region (or) another group of people of a same state, just like USA does/did on Cuba? And also, have you ever heard/seen a region (or) a group of people making a big scene(politics) out of a trivial issue, a state govt. decision to allot 100 acres of land to a very important & popular religious institution, when 1000s of acres of land is given to private companies/individuals in name of SEZ and other developmental activities?

Do you think such regions (or) such groups of people should be kept united for the sake of Indianness? How long should people of certain regions struggle & suffer for the comfort/image/status/economic benifit/political interests of other regions in India? India should honour the political & social aspiration and separate state demand of different regions and create separate states for them to have a self-rule/self-administration of their own with in Indian Union. Otherwise, there will be lot of mis-trust, mis-understanding, disturbance/social unrest, violence, etc between the regions (or) social groups within India leading to Nation-wide political instability and insecurity.

In letter and spirit, India should follow the saying "UNITY IN DIVERSITY". As long as you ignore/insult/kill diversity, you can not achieve unity. India (or) Indianness is nothing but, UNITY IN DIVERSITY!! భారతీయత అంటే భిన్నత్వంలో ఏకత్వం కాని రాష్ట్రాలను ఏకంగా (విభజించకుండా) వుంచడం కాదు! ఏనాడైతే ఈ భిన్నత్వనికి హాని/అవమానం/అవహేళన/అన్యాయం జరుగుతుందో అప్పుడు ఏకత్వానికి (భారతీయతకు) అర్థం ఉండదు!

Jai Telangana! Long live India & her unity!!

Government intervention in Agri-Food Markets is detrimental to Farmers

As a farmer & farmers well-wisher, I always wanted rice prices to go up to Rs.35-40 Kg (fine varities like BPT, Sona Masuri, etc) and in turn wanted the major portion of the price difference/hike to go into farmers' pocket. In the present free market it has happened/happening. But unfortunately, government is trying to make an intervention which will be detrimental to farmers. Is the government working for poor farmers in villages (who are even committing suicides) or middle-class to rich people in cities & towns? Can't a higher middle-class family (4-5 members) afford to spend Rs.700-800 (20-25kg fine rice) per month on rice, which is equivalent to 2 eat-out dinners for the family ? Everybody (Businessmen, Consumer, Govt., etc) in the country want to eat into farmers' profit/income, even in the crisis-times of Agriculture.
Goverment forcibly takes farmers lands cheaply in the name of Industrialization and sells the same land to Industries & real-estate companies for higher rates denying higher profits/incomes to farmers. Now(of course since ages), Government is trying to intervene in the farm produce market and denying better profits/income to farmers. On the other-side, Govt. & Political parties try/demand to give Rs.1000 per 100kgs paddy (65-70% is rice) and presently giving only Rs.650 and planned to give Rs.800 from this season.
Following news provoked me to post this topic.
http://www.eenadu.net/archives/archive-6-8-2008/panelhtml.asp?qrystr=htm...
I solicit your valuable comments and opinions on this very important issue related to Agriculture, Agri & Food Marketing, and Farm Incomes.

Micro-Irrigation and Telangana Agriculture

MICRO-IRRIGATION SYSTEM (MIS) is the future for Telangana Agriculture. Important Micro-Irrigation Systems are Drip Irrigation Systems and Sprinkler Systems. Other than aforementioned systems, there numerous other Micro-Irrigations Systems used in Precision & Controlled-Atmosphere Agriculture.

In a semi-arid environment like Telangana, where summer temparatures touch 50 degree centigrade, we have to go for Controlled-Atmosphere Agriculture soon to continuously supply fresh & presihable farm produce, like Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers to ever-growing Hyderabad City. Moreover summer is the Celebration & Ceremonies time with majority percentage of Function and Weddings happening. These Weddings and Functions require huge quantities of fresh & presihable like Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers.

Micro Irrigation Systems (MIS)- are REMEDY for a big PROBLEM, lack of sufficient water to irrigate moderately good to best soils year round inspite of having moderate ground-water resources. As every REMEDY, MIS also has some SIDE-EFFECTS, high CAPEX, continuous electricity supply, knowledge of the technology & products,maintenance, etc. We shouldn't focus on SIDE-EFFECTS only and ignore the big PROBLEM & popular REMEDY. SIDE-EFFECTS should be MANAGED!

Except paddy(rice), you can grow ALL CROPS under MIS. Even you can grow paddy(rice) under new cultivationmethod - SRI cultivation (System of RiceIntensification)- under MIS.

MIS are not off-the-shelf products that fits-all. They are engineering solutions and cost vary from solution to solution, depending on the material,technique, management, crop(s), soil type, topographyof the farm, affordability of the farmers, etc. Hence, Govt. should not involve in directly in micro(farm-level) planning & implementation because it isnot a major/minor irrigation project. Choice of solution should be left to the FARMER.

MIS are not very complicated technology - can be simplified. Low-cost SOLUTIONS can be found (material,techniques, engineering, etc.). Regarding HIGH COST of MIS, IN APMIP, few big companies have their own problems with technology(b'cos of collaboration of Israeli & American technologies - picking off-the-shelf technologies) and govt.(bribing officials & politicians to get sell the systems in WHOLESALE). Hence, the high cost! We should encourage local manufacturers & suppliers, who can adapt the technology & develop low-cost products

This is a small attempt from my side to give you some insights into this very important topic - MICRO IRRIGATION SYSTEMS! Hope this helps the readers to think & work on this important subject, which can save the livelihoods of millions of rural folk and rejuvenate the Telangana Agriculture!

Are we in right constructive path towards Telangana ?

One of my fellow Telangana forum member, Srinath asked:

are we in right constructive path towards Telangana ?

and

How much we as a individual or non-profit & non political organizations or as political parties have suceeded or laid a succesful path towards Telangana ?

I say:

Yes, we are on the path to Telangana State. But we may not be on a Contrcuctive path to build a better Telangana for the welfare & security of the people.

While fighting/demanding for separate state, we as individuals (or) not-for-profit & non-political organizations should not forget tounderstand the local problems & issues, articulate them to the local leaders/public representatives and govt. administrators, and try to find the solutions on regular basis. We, Telanganites are very much part of the Indian Union. Hence, we should try to collaborate with the Cental & State Govt. organizations in our own capacity to provide better services to people in the field of Education, Health, Livelihoods, etc.

We should not shun government programs & schemes saying that CM is a non-telangana (or) anti-telangana. We should not forget that in implementing govt. programs & schemes and running govt. admistrative organizations, there are thousands of people (officials & public representatives, majority of them are our own Telanganites) between C.M and a common man (benificier). Even after setting up Telangana State Govt. (at least in short-term), we will be working with same admistrative set up and same officials & public representatives except our own Telangana CM & Council of Ministers.

Hence, we, individuals (or) not-for-profit & non-political organizations should understand the local problems & issues and work in collaboration with govt. administration & organizations to find solutions.

To be frank in India, Government is ill-equipped and under-staffed to provide welfare & security services to all people in current scenario - growing population & urbanization, fast-growing economy, new commercial & residential establishments, fast-changing lifestyles, etc. Hence, we, individuals (or) not-for-profit & non-political organizations should chip in and take up responsibility in collaboration with the Govt. administration & organizations. Telangana is no exception to all the above said symptoms & scenarios.

Telangana State formation is a political process and we will succeed soon. We, as region/state can not take the approach of Gujjars (or) something like that and create the scenes (ఎలకల/పందికొక్కుల బాధకి ఇల్లు తగల బెట్టుకున్నట్లు!). Till Telangana State forms and even after also, we individuals (or)not-for-profit & non-political organizations should work with Govt. administratives (panchayat secretary, MRO, MDO, Collector, diff. department offcials at Mandal, Zilla, & state secretariat) & public representatives (ward-members, sarpanches, MPTCs, ZPTCs, MLAs, MPs, etc.).

Indo-US Agriculture Agreement follows the Nuclear Deal

Indo-US Agriculture Agreement's main purpose is to bring in the New Agriculture Technologies - seed, crop production, and produce & food processing technologies, better Agri-business management practices, and more domestic & foreign investments to revitalize the crisis-ridden Indian Agriculture and to bring rural industrialization. An Agro-Climatic Region (similar to Southern California in USA) like Telangana is going to benefit a lot from Indo-US Agriculture Agreement.

No secret that few big multi-national companies (Wal-mart, Monsanto, etc.) are directly involved in the agreement from US side. Also Dr.Mangala Rai, Director General of ICAR (Indian Council of Agriculture Research) and Shri.Sharad Powar, Agriculture Minister and President of ICAR are involved from Indian side along with other team members from different sectors/sections related to Agriculture.

Also there is no doubt that this agreement is going to help MNCs as much as it helps Indian farmers & agriculture. No agreement (or) negotiation is going to be one-sided, generally they will be win-win types. As doctors say, there is no medicine in the world without side effects. In the same way, we will have to face some challenges in the process of implementing Indo-US Agriculture Agreement. In some sense, Nuclear Deal was a pre-requisite for Indo-US Agriculture Agreement to generate enough power to support the new agriculture technologies, which are no doubt energy consuming!

I am very much aware that there will be a similar opposition for this Indo-US Agriculture Agreement as happened in case of Nuclear Deal. To be frank due to various reasons, especially due to inefficient/inferior Seed Technologies, Irrigation Technologies, Crop Management Techniques, Post-harvest & Food Technologies, and Marketing & Retail Management Practices, our agriculture growth got stagnant and almost reached a dead-end. Some farmers (mostly medium-scale farmers with 5-10 acres growing commercial crops) are committing suicides due to year-after-year losses & with unbearable debts and others are unable to see themselves 5-10 yrs down the line into agriculture and stopped any further investments.

I can go on writing on this subject, which I keep very close to my heart and in which I got educated and worked. But I stop here to know comments and opinions from the readers of this blog on this very important agreement, which is going to bring a very positive change in the lives of our rural folks & farmers.

This is just an heads-up for you all. It's also an earnest attempt from my side to pitch a Pro Indo-US Agriculture Agreement point of view.