Bifurcation blues continue in Telangana as Modi visits for 10th time

Bifurcation blues are continuing to haunt the people of Telangana more than eight years after the State was created.

Hyderabad: Bifurcation blues are continuing to haunt the people of Telangana more than eight years after the State was created. Courtesy the Centre’s apathy, a majority of these promises made under the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act have remained unfulfilled.

Incidentally, the BJP or its government at the Centre are in no mood to even mention them even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Telangana for the 10th time in the last eight years.

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Ever since the State was formed on June 2, 2014, the union government has been dilly-dallying with the promises, with coordination meetings held for 26 times till date only as a formality.

Rather than playing the role of a Big Brother and making efforts to resolve the inter-State disputes, especially sharing of assets, liabilities and water, the Centre has been giving free advice to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to resolve the contentious issues amicably.

There has been no response to multiple representations submitted by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, Ministers and officials to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union Home Minister Amit Shah and other Central Ministers.
Among the assurances given under Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, none of them have been fully resolved till date.

The rail coach factory promised to be established at Kazipet has been shifted to Gujarat even after the Telangana government allotted 150 acres for the purpose. Similarly, the proposal for steel plant at Bayyaram has been scrapped citing poor quality of iron ore, even after the State government offered to support establishment of infrastructure for the mineral transportation.

The Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) promised during the UPA regime, has been scrapped and the BJP government has not compensated for the same nor supported the upcoming IT parks in the State.

Similarly, though the State government had allocated land for the proposed tribal university at Mulugu, the Centre is yet to respond to it. The mining university promised to the State too has been kept on the backburner.

The inter-State river water disputes over Krishna and Godavari Rivers are yet to be settled. The Krishna river water share of Telangana has not been finalised, forcing the State government to keep irrigation projects on hold.

Further, the assurance to accord national project status to an irrigation project – either Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme or Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Scheme, was also denied by the Centre, claiming that it had taken a policy decision not to accord national project status to any irrigation projects in the country.

However, shortly thereafter, the BJP government accorded national project status to Upper Bhadra project in Karnataka and later the Ken-Betwa river linking project in Madhya Pradesh, both BJP-ruled States.

The division of several assets, liabilities and also institutions listed under Schedule 9 and 10, between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, are still pending. The assurance to increase the Telangana State Assembly seats from 119 to 153 has also been delayed.