Has Telangana found its feet?

Telangana celebrating its one year existence after years of turmoil.One year is good time to introspect how Telangana and its chosen government performed.At the outset i say that this govt is trying to get basics right.getting basics right is crucial for long innings.Let us see how this government fared across many areas and what it can do better.

Society:

Society as whole became more confident and assertive. It took full control of itself. Be it celebrating Batukamma on unprecedented scale or celebrating Indian independence day from golconda fort. Promoting Telangana art to folk songs to cuisine. Govt could more by giving honorary professorships to all the artists in different areas in universities to keep those arts alive and pass knowledge to future generations.

Electricity 

Telangana inherited installed capacity of around 4200 MW out of which 2200 MW thermal and 2000MW of Hydel which is not reliable as it is season based. Effectively we have 2200 MW of electricity. Roughly every 1000MW electricity produces 19MU(Million Units) with PLF of 80%.If you look at the electricity consumption of Telangana is 135-151MU. From Telangana alone we can at max generate 41 MU( 2200MW * 24 * 0.8). This mean we are now effectively buying 90-110 MU. To just meet the demand on our needs another 6000 MW. So,with 8000MW of installed capacity we can meet our demand.

By 2015 year end, we get KTPS - 800 MW and Singareni 1200 that adds around 40 MU.

In 2016, 2000 MW solar get added so additional 40MU.so,our own power is around 110-120 MU by end of 2016. if Bhadradri 1080 comes by 2019.,additional 20 MU. With this we can meet our current demand on our own. On our own we will be self sufficient. if you add 4000 MW from Nalgonda(2019),1000MW from chatisgarh,4000MW from NTPC,Telangana can sell power to neighbouring states.Mind you we can always buy 60MU in market anytime as we are doing today.

In all likelihood one word KCR surely to keep is on electricity as he has planned well and backed by able leadership in the form of Prabhakar Rao.Kudos to his vision and his execution skills as well.

Irrigation 

Major irrigation was often used tool to explain the Telangana suffering. It is non starter.

Understandably so as it needs reorientation and rethinking.Everybody who had roots in villages can associate with lakes. It is common question that comes up ,even now, when i call home "How much full is lake?". Govt did a great service to society by taking lake restoration program.This possible as it is headed by who understood Telangana society from bottom to top.we need to understand what are our core strength and weaknesses as society. We need to play to our strength and work on weaknesses. Given the extreme temperatures and unpredictable monsoon ,this will help the environment longways.

 Forests

Monkey menace simply explains the state of forests in Telangana. Ingenuity of CM KCR comes to the fore here. If you tell anybody this problem,they must have suggested to cull monkeys.

His solutions are needs to be appreciated. as he suggested put the monkeys where they belong-forests by planting fruit and other trees within forests and empty lands..This simply exemplifies the great thinking of CM KCR.Just addressing the symptom wont do any good for society,address the problem.CM KCR has identified the importance of our forests.

Telangana forests were bulldozed by our own Telangana people.Walk to any forest neighbouring place like my own Achmapet,look at the wealthy most of them made from forests.It needs to insert fear among those who exploit nature.By providing and empowering local Chenchus. nobody loves forest more than them.

Roads

KCR great strength has always been his communication- putting complex things in simple ways.This gets reflected that way he communicated about his vision for roads in Telangana.

He says- Each village will be connected to mandal by 1 lane road ,mandal to district by 2 lane road and each district to Hyderabad by 4 lane road and. This dream come true to Telangana when this happens. Can you just imagine the potential of this idea?. it changes whole economy of telangana.be it movement of goods and people or service.Fund allocations are done,need to see how this pans out.

Water 

If one thing that puts Telangana on great plane is this one.This is life changing thing for common Telangana citizen. When this implemented this is kind of panacea to all social ills. I still remember days when my mother used to get up at 3-30 AM everyday to fetch water from near by "Hand Pump" to avoid the crowd and cat fights.This improves general health of women and amount of time they spend fetching water. Major source to all village illness are fluoride water or contaminated water.This just makes Healthy Telangana. generation will be proud of KCR and his govt. This makes him EMS of Telangana. EMS brought in land reforms in Kerala,his name etched in history forever. When KCR govt does this,It simply shapes the future of it.

Eductaion: 

Biggest non starter.We need to how english medium education to all will pan out.With the technology his major source of problem finding good teachers can be solved. KCR himself created many CDs to explain the Telangana problem to whole world.I just wonder why same thing cant be done today.Create the CDs of each subject with best of the best people and pass on to the schools.The quality teachers cant be created overnight,only technology is the best substitute.if you keep waiting for english speaking teachers,this program doomed to fail.

Health:   

Telangana hospitals are on death bed. It needs thorough overhaul. Unfortunately it is non stater.All promises were made.None of them is started. district hospitals with huge capacity with outlay of 100 crores. All right noises like changing working hours to suit rural people. I wonder why this government cant create 5 in each year in the similar line of Mission Kakatiya like DIVEDE an d CONQUER.Why one wing of government not learning from other.

Skill budilding

Recently TASK was opened but it is only aimed at the imparting IT skills.ITIs experiment to some extent worked.They are not ready for todays needs.They need overhaul.When NAC can offer 3 months in hostel course for construction. Why not same cant be done,though ITIS or some other means with other skills in electronics ,electrical,mechanical, life sciences or other demanding courses. One hand we want jobs preferably should be given to local people.But we need to equip them with skills. There is lack of cohesion.It looks govt is not working in tandem. It si small council of ministers.Ideally should have been better cohesion.

Unemployment : 

In general Telangana economy back on track they ensured in all possible ways. private investments started tricking in, with new industrial policy more to come.However KCR has so far not delivered on pubic sector employment except few positions in singareni. This is most crucial.He will make or break his image based on how he performs. Given all legal and administrative hurdles he treading a right path,however he will make or break his image for 2019..One single thing that decide his future is meeting that magic mark on of 1lk jobs.

Agriculture:

No respite from agrarian crisis,even after form loan waiver.In long term ,Mission Kakatiya,irrigation,quality electricity supply ,farm mechanisation,new warehouses, better market should help.Govt is thinking on all those lines but act fast on them.

Police 

Telangana police are the notorious lot. Indirectly or directly in the name of containing naxalism,everybody growing up in 90s bore the brunt of police excess. be it either stripped in the bus-stands,stoping on roads or unprovoked abuses from police.And also while fighting for Telangana ,people roughed up with police and experienced excess of police.In general that should have resulted in mistrust between police and people had it not for KCR brilliant idea of harmonising the relationship between police and people by making them to work shoulder to shoulder with people on various initiatives.

Corruption: In Telangana, if somebody ask me to predict where more jobs will be carted i would say without a hesitation it must be electricity department.Every week i see news ACB raid on one AE or other.I wonder in no time electricity department without any AEs. This might be bit exaggeration,clandestinely he has given full powers to ACBs to take on employees.One hand he has increased their salaries other hand he is making them accountable with is without any fanfare.Yes there might still be retail corruption which might not have subsided but things should better.

CM KCR has chosen right team of babus to execute his vision. Any independent thinker can learn lot from KCR person perse by observing his leadership style and ingenuity.However it appears his own council of ministers are observant enough to learn quick and act quickly.

Telangna Movement – National media Coverage

Telangna Movement – National media Coverage

It has always been Telangana that inspired me to put pen to paper. Surprisingly this time a person influences me to write this article. A persona called  Mr.Arya Chowdary, fellow Telanganite, who has been making untiring effort to change one unreasonable, unprofessional  and closed minded individual called T.S Sudheer- NDTV correspondent from Hyderabad , on NDTV website. I feel very sorry for Mr.Arya Cowdary and request him to stop approaching this unlevel headed individual. This is also my request to all fellow Telanganites who are craving for national (Nothing national about these channels. These are notionally national) coverage.

NDTV Anti Telangana Coverage:

                It would be wrong on my part paint whole NDTV Team as unprofessional organization and say that NDTV is anti Telangana.I rather treat it as one individual unprofessional handy work. I’ll write few incidents that how NDTV covered and intensions behind it.

 KCR hunger strike:

            This was not covered at all initially till his health became very serious. He might have felt that that was not national news. I’ll give benefit of doubt to him. However at the same time he covered attack on Renuka chowdary house at khammam. That filthy woman came on TV and abused the all Telanganites as Gundas  and all. Mind you he has shown Sonia Gandhi poster being torn apart. This gentleman called Telanganites as thugs later on his blogs and all.I told him,in the form of comments, then that “for Pizza khanewaloko(I really doubt on his own money) juvar rotikhanewala looks like thugs only”. However he covers on hourly basis the manufactured united Andhra movement.

Intention: show Telangana movement in bad light and make it as anti-Sonia.

Telnagna Maha Garjana :

                This was huge meeting ever happened in the independent India. Politician may claim that 25 lakhs attended the meeting. Let us take more pessimistic figure as 10-15 lakhs.By any standard that is good number. This did not find any mention in his channel. However on 17th morning he files a story saying that “ Jagan exit Good for Telangana- KCR”.Because he wanted to create friction between KCR and Congress. But he conveniently forgets the grand meeting in the evening. Read his stupid, cunning mind.

Phew the list is endless. He and his wife live on the poor of Telangna. I assume that they have some quota of stories to cover monthly or something. What these duo pick up not anything but “Lambada women selling kids stories” or death due to harassment or something. If they have mind of their own they should have gone to bottom of the issue,insteading of mere reporting that.For  this gentlemen what is  national news is worth reporting from Andhra Pradesh – Mr Rajasekhraa reddy – twirling his moustache not the hardships of fluoride victims in Nalgonda. This gentlemen so obsessed with animals that he always compared Mr. YSR with Tiger and his Son with Cub. He conveniently forgets that this tigers invasion of jungle and his loot in Andhra Pradesh. I asked many times on NDTV website stop doing this “Junglee” reporting and do some journlism.Sorry this gentleman might have forgotten basics of Journalism after living off the largesse of Andhra politicians. This guy is not Andhra wala as many say he is keralite.That is reason I told him( in the form comments) “it seems you have forgotten basics of journalism and learn from fellow journalist- Amarnath.k.Menon of India today to report unbiasedly). By the way A.K.Menon is Tejadeep kaur hubby( he is some DG in AP Police). I hit this guy many times through comments. NEVER abused him. So he blocked me from commenting on NDTV website. You can understand this guy mentality, who has no room for criticism when it comes to his own affairs. However this same gentleman criticizes KCR and Telangana movement.

Other National Media

CNN IBN Pretthi singh, anyway doe not report against or for so it does not matter. We know pretty well that Hindu editorial policy is against Telangana. Some reputed weeklies like Outlook, India Today and Tehelka  are covering really well.

What is the message for Telangana Intelligentsia?

                KCR and other intellectual are very well aware of that. Unlike many of us they do not complain. Instead they took the practical(political) path.In the current day politics; policticains at the national level are intelligent enough get the correct source of ionformation.Telangna declaration did not come becaz of National media coverage but here the heat generated by us. See irony in this country.In Manipur poor social activist Sharmila on fast unto death for the last 10 years  for abolition of Armed Forces special power act (AFSPA).For the same thing In Kashmir  people on street; our country constituted committee in Kashmir and hardily given damn to Sharmila. If you have listen to Neera radia tapes,you will realize the shady business these media personalities do. Do not forgot the fact the why Telugu media covered manufactured united Andhra movement; apart from that is owned by them;they were after ad revenue carrot Mr. Lagadapati shown. In this country everything is corrupt. To think that these journalists could not be bought by some vested interests is naïve.

           My dear fellow Telanganites do not get discouraged by the no coverage of National media. I have a question for you all. How many of us know the fact that women fighting for separate Uttaranchal when they are on their way to New Delhi, they were raped by Uttar Pradesh people at Kathroli ? Women started early and men followed later; before men reached there they were beaten and raped. Many great moments of movements do go unreported or under reported; that does not mean that we should be discouraged.

                Telangana has produced great telugu journalists of impeccable integrity such as Allam Narayana , K srinivas,Pasam yadgiri ,N.Venugopal ,Nageswar and many more.Whether you know it or not most of the people who write in most reputed  magazine across world - Indian fortnight mazgazine “ The economic and Political weekly(EPW)” are from Telangana. We all should take a pledge today that next batch of intellectuals from south India should be form Telangana. I do not bracket these few idiots like Notional TV correspondents with intellectuals. Do not forget the fact that Dec 9 Telangna declaration is the result of untiring intellectual battle  waged by Telangna  leaders ( like Jaipal reddy,Kesava rao) along with our Leader KCR political strategies. Let us all pledge that we give all the intellectual depth that required for the betterment of Telangana and also safe guard the interests of Telangana. Let us diversify our professions across all professions instead hanging onto few sectors. Let us see an opportunity  in this ;instead of worrying about what some unprofessional reports about.

Why KCR is an Idea?

          The idea of Telangana, if I have to define, is fighting for justice at all costs against all manifestations of social ills. What is an idea? Idea is something which awakens, empowers, inspires to fight, and gives a sense of purpose. This is what Telangana movement is all about. When a personal trait of an individual help in achieving the very goal society is fighting for then individual becomes an idea. It is very rarely we see in the history that people become synonymous with causes they are fighting for. This happened few times in the history. For instance, MKGandhi was the face of Indian independence, Dr.King was the face of civil rights movement and recently Anna Hazare became the face of Anti-corruption movement. And in the case of Telangana – Mr. KCR was the face of movement as he did all it takes to give a purpose to whole society.

Telangana and fighting are inseparable as we have a great history of fighting against all odds be it against powerful Nizam or landlords or Andhra rulers. History observers say that Telangana was always let down by its own leaders. If you observe Telangana history it is always common people who led from the front and leader followed later to hijack. Thus there was always a trust deficit between Telangana people and its politicians. It reached a point that it resigned to its fate. This was the very reason Telangana challenged Mr. KCR to prove his credentials time and again and once it realized he is the leader they have been looking for, then they rallied behind him. Let me take you through past ten odd years to understand this man and what he has done to Telangana society.

Low confidence

As they say history is always written by winners, so Andhra establishment in Telangana rewrote the whole history books sans mention of Telangana word. Mr. Chandrababu Naidu went to the extent that he has given a ruling in the AP assembly through speaker that the word “Telangana” must not be mentioned in assembly instead it should be referred as “backward region”. Every oppressor knows what can unseat him. Even Telangana oppressor knows Telangana monster can bulldoze Andhra hegemony if not controlled. The identity of Telangana is replaced cleverly by identity of Telugu.Telangan language and culture was degraded in movies and official circles.Telangan society was pushed to believe that they were inferior lot. Telangana people changed Telangana slang to suit the Andhra slang .Telangana entrepreneurs are not encouraged as most of the secretariat and other agencies such as APIIC and SFCs were staffed with Andhra.Thi s is a systematic suppression and looting of one region by the other in the name of language.

In 2009 when I wrote an article about KCR, a reader commented that he returned from US to run a business in Hyderabad as his father always used to discourage him saying we, Telanganites should not be doing business as it was privy of Andhra elite. The self-belief of Telangana society plummeted to that level. This was not the story of one family but of every family story in Telangana. Andhra thought policing and control over Telangana was total.

New Confidence

In times like this ray of hope beaconed on Telangana in the form of KCR.With the emergence of TRS, KCR started explaining the Andhra exploitation in chaste Telangana slang and Telangana slang has started appearing in prime time TV news. It is very refreshing to note that Telangana dialect is in free flow across offices and on the streets. He exhorted youth why we could not make movies and movies started coming out till that time personal fiefdom of Andhra families. He has also proven a point that Telangana politicians can establish political parties and can run successfully amid all the turbulences. He identified Andhras were ruling the roost through media, newspapers; pooled in the resources to establish newspapers and TV channels to further the cause of Telangana. With his arrival, suppressed Telangana society has found a new found confidence.

He never minced words to explain to the Andhras exploitation. Even Andhra people started feeling the pinch. A case in point is -an Andhra mimicry artist was saying in “Open Heart With RK” that, sometimes he gets a feeling why he born that side of the Krishna river, if he was born other side he must have been spared from KCR tirade. This speaks volume how enemy was pushed to the corner.

Cultural renaissance

As somebody puts it, brilliantly, a multidimensional like Telangana can't be comprehended by simple minds and that was the reason Telangana goes unreported and this phenomenon is under understood across country. People who visited Telangana villages during SJS (All people strike) could only gauge the depth of cultural richness of Telangana society. It is very refreshing to see how many Telangana folks songs were written and sung to enthuse the crowd and how many of them turned into self-financed private albums.

I still remember the words of KCR saab when he said when Telangana people start writing fire oozes out not words as we have strong emotional attachment to subjects. This was only KCR trademark quality- a compassionate poet and hard taskmaster politician both at same time and he switches between one role and other effortlessly and this very quality endeared him to both class and mass.This was the inspiration to most of the people to put up websites and blogs to promote Telangana movement. It is no wonder that we have the best editors form Telangana be it Allam Narayan or K Srinivas or Katta shaker reddy.

Culminating figure

KCRs greatest contribution to Telangana movement was to unite people from all walks of life. Right and left of political line were aligned, poor and rich sharing same space, fortunate and unfortunate occupied with same thoughts, near and far fighting for the same and village, cities, foreign cities are on same line of thought. I just wonder if any other movement in the world united so many. With their innovative programs they made to sit all caste groups to sit together share a meal and danced together. It will be forever etched in our memories how Telangana activists used to support each other- one takes lathi charge from one hand and tries saving fellow activists from other. The camaraderie and brotherhood this movement bought can never be forgotten.

All is well and Father of All

Last 4 years were most emotionally draining period for Telangana society. Some people succumbed to by choosing death as option and others were silently taking it.Everyday was anxious day, you never know what is going to be in new paper tomorrow and what new rumor or what new innovative way to stop Telangana.Eevry political joker was a threat as everybody was looking like a potential destructor to the idea of Telangana, given the economic might of individual. Though repeatedly KCR has given assurances but they could not withstand the propaganda Andhra mills working on. In this emotional roller coaster time, whole society was looking for his assured words. A society which was robbed of its leadership who has spine and can talk for it, he is “no worries man” at the same time worrying figure for all Telangana detractors. At times youth of Telangana society forgot about their own parents for counseling on Telangana issue but waiting for few words of assurance from this man.Everybody saw a father figure in him

Political strategy

He had enviable political career till he shunned the comfort of taking shade under the umbrella of TDP to float a political party to fight for the cause of Telangana separate state. He emerged victorious in the very next elections and subsequently in many other elections. He is the only politician who used the “Resignations” as a weapon to reflect the public mood and his party has the highest number of resignations in typical 5 year duration. In times when politician cling to power till his deathbed, he demonstrated that giving up power -being a minister without any portfolio or giving up MLA and MP posts. He ensured that all ruling and opposition parties toe the line of Telangana by having electoral alliances with them in 2004 and 2009 general elections thus exposing the duplicity of their support to Telangana cause. It needed absolute political brilliance of the bony man to invite TDP and congress along with every other political party to Telangana den.He ensured that every political party in AP stood nakedly before the public of Telangana. This kind of political expose forced government of India to finally concede.

Here is person who influenced individual thoughts and channelized all energies to a cause and finally ensured that we collectively achieved it. So KCR is philosophy and thought and it is permanently etched in every Telangana person memory forever.