The Telugu Seema Development Forum (TSDF), an organisation set up by intellectuals to work for decentralised development of residuary Andhra Pradesh, will prepare a vision document for equitable progress in all areas in the divided State.
An approach paper for preparing the vision document for the comprehensive development of 13 districts was released at a press conference here on Saturday by chairman of the forum K.S. Chalam, former Vice-Chancellor of Dravidian University, and members Ravela Somayya, A. Ranga Reddy, Y. Sarat and S. Ananda Babu. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Chalam blamed centralisation of development in and around Hyderabad as the reason for the heartburn of Seemandhra people against State bifurcation. “Now that A.P. is divided, the need of the hour is to focus on the development of residuary A.P.”, he said.
Citing some statistics, Mr. Chalam said there were 22 towns in Seemandhra with population between one and two lakh and 9 towns/cities with higher population. However, none of them have proper infrastructure for socio-economic development. Such a decentralised and inclusive development would need perspective plan and a pragmatic approach to achieve it. The forum would make an attempt to conceptualise the dream through its vision document, he explained.
As part of preparing the vision document, the forum would meet cross-section of the society at Guntur, Tirupati and Visakhapatnam after Ugadi festival.
