Hyderabad evokes hot debate in political and academic circles

Status of Hyderabad following bifurcation of the State evokes spirited debate in political, official and academic circles

(From left) Editor of Veekshanam N. Venugopala Rao, former Vijayawada MLA Adusumilli Jayaprakash, former Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary P. Joy Oommen, freedom fighter and historian Burgula Narsing Rao, JNU Associate Professor Dr. Asha Sarangi, Prof Rama Melkote, Prof M. Sridhar of the Nalsar University of Law and former Director of Software Technology Park of India (STPI) J. A. Chowdhary at the one-day national consultation organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy to discuss issues concerning the proposed bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad on Saturday. Photo: Nagara Gopal

The status of Hyderabad in the event of bifurcation of the State continues to be a hotly debated issue in the political, academia and other circles.

The issue which figured in a meeting organised by The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy saw some interesting observations by speakers who felt that centralised development of the State capital with concentration of political power as well as infrastructure had made it a bone of contention in the bifurcation of the State.

The speakers including representatives of the political parties, academicians and journalists were unanimous in their assertion that there was a set of solutions and possibilities if the Government was keen on resolving the issue amicably.

CESS professor E. Revathi explained about an exercise conducted by the organisation to assess the sales tax, central excise and state’s own tax revenues with a major portion of the revenues accruing from the State Capital. Efforts should accordingly be made to ensure that this revenue was distributed in proportion with the GSDP contribution of the two regions for a specific period of time till the residual AP developed its capital and resources.

“Denying capital to Seemandhra region will tantamount to denying the people their constitutional right for access to development,” Nalsar professor Madabhushi Sridhar said.

International standards

While freedom fighter Burgula Narsing Rao and journalist N. Venugopal were firm that Hyderabad was the capital of Telangana and there was no compromise on that count, Chhattisgarh former Chief Secretary P. Joy Oommen said once there was consensus over the location of the proposed new capital of residual AP State, efforts should be made to ensure the costs were minimised by planning development in line with the international standards.

“The situation calls for a well worked out formula either for retaining the same capital or setting up new one with geographic continuity and linguistic homogeneity,” JNU School of Political Studies associate professor Asha Sarangi, who moderated the session, said.