AP’s disastrous irrigation schemes slow down మంగళవారం, నవం 3 2009

Jalayagnam comes to a virtual halt

NM Satheesh  Indian Express 3 Nov 2009

HYDERABAD: Jalayagnam, the favourite scheme of former chief minister the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, seems to have slided down in the list of priorities of the present government.

Leave alone the progress of the programme at the field level, even a review of it by the government has become rare in the last two months.

According to sources in the irrigation department, funding of the programme has come to a halt and the pending bills are piling up with the government.

It seems that the government is not going to spend the allocated budget Rs 18,000 crore in this financial year. The government has not released even Rs 1,000 crore for the projects in the last two months. It was decided by the regime of Rajasekhara Reddy that the government should release about Rs 1,400 crore every month to keep the projects going.

According to officials, the government has already halted payment of Rs 4,000 crore which was spent by the contractors and the construction of projects like Pulichintala which has been completed to an extent of 70 per cent is not progressing as per the schedule.

Irrigation officials say that the time table fixed by the government for the completion of 82 major and medium irrigation projects under Jalayagnam will go awry.

The YSR government had contemplated Jalayagnam to bring about one crore acres of land under irrigation facility. Under the scheme 82 projects are to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1.50 lakh crore.

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Truth of Displacement & Rehabilitation: GoM’s confidential Report శనివారం, అక్టో 31 2009

The Hindu /Opinion 17 April 2006

GoM’s confidential report

This is the text, obtained exclusively by The Hindu, of “A Brief Note on the Assessment of Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R & R) Sites and Submergence of Villages of the Sardar Sarovar Project.” The note marked confidential and dated April 9, 2006, was signed by Union Minister of Water Resources, Saifuddin Soz, Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar, and Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office Prithviraj Chauhan.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) comprising Prof. Saifuddin Soz, Minister of Water Resources, Smt. Meira Kumar, Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment and Shri Prithviraj Chavan, MOS in the PMO, deputed by the Hon’ble Prime Minister to Madhya Pradesh, arrived Indore late in the evening on April 6, 2006.

Soon after arrival in Indore, a meeting was held with Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan and some of his Cabinet colleagues and officers.

The Madhya Pradesh Government made a presentation and wanted the GoM to appreciate that the Madhya Pradesh Government had taken concrete steps to rehabilitate Project Affected Families (PAFs) and that Rehabilitation and Resettlement would be completed by 30th June, 2006. In that connection, the GoM was requested to visit some sites such as Khalghat, Dharampuri, Lakhangaon and Borlai etc.

When asked as to how many SC/ST families were affected, the Government could not provide any information.

Early in the morning of April 7, 2006, the GoM left for a visit to Rehabilitation and Submergence sites.

The GoM visited Khalghat, Dharampuri, Lakhangaon, Borlai 1, 2 and 3, Awalda, Piplud and Nisarpur. The GoM was stopped at other places including Picchodi where people narrated their tales of woe. The representatives of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) had insisted in Delhi in their memorandum that a visit to Borlai, Awalda, Piplud and Nisarpur would be necessary to find out whether the claim of the Government of Madhya Pradesh that the PAFs had been rehabilitated was correct.

Khalghat

The GoM visited Khalghat site where Madhya Pradesh Government had offered land to 407 families. Only 2 families had accepted the land. The top soil there is black. The people say that they have to dig 10 feet deep to find the cultivable land. The Government had not succeeded in persuading the oustees to accept the land. Hundreds of people on the spot complained before the GoM that the Government had not conducted a proper survey and offered the land without consulting the oustees. Shri Mohan Lal Sharma (resident of Gazipur, District Dharampuri) who spoke on behalf of oustees, complained before the members of the Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) that the Madhya Pradesh Government had acted in haste and allotted the land which was totally uncultivable. The members of the NVDA did not contradict Shri Mohan Lal.

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Jai Telangana మంగళవారం, అక్టో 6 2009

BOOK WATCH
By Anita Joshua

Jai Telangana

Telangana: The State of Affairs, M. Bharath Bhushan and N. Venugopal, AdEd Value Ventures, Rs. 250.

Ever a festering issue in Andhra Pradesh, the Telangana question assumed national significance after a three-decade hiatus since the Jai Telangana Movement in the wake of the 2004 electoral alliance between the Congress and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.

Sensing the widespread ignorance outside the State about the Telangana issue, M. Bharath Bhushan and N. Venugopal have sought to explain the rationale for the demand for separate Statehood in this collection of research articles on the region and literature from the area. Through these varied approaches, the attempt is to explain the reasons for the sense of alienation felt by the people of Telangana; traced in a 1969 vintage article by Duncan B. Forrester to the region being under Nizam’s rule for 200 years, cut away from the “rest of the Telugu country”.

Given that Telangana has become a major election issue in the State, the book examines whether polls foster separatism and uses government data to show how the region is lagging behind the coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh to make out a case for a separate identity. Also thrown in are two short stories in translation — the delightful “Golla Ramavva” by former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and “Bhoomi” by the doyen of Telugu short stories, Allam Rajayya.

Source: Literary Review, The Hindu, Oct 4, 2009 http://www.hindu.com/lr/2009/10/04/stories/2009100450060200.htm

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‘Little England’ in Secunderabad- Anglo Indians ఆదివారం, అక్టో 4 2009

Fun-loving and at home in ‘Little England’

Mithi Chinoy, Times of India

HYDERABAD: You don’t see much of them these days. The Anglo-Indian community, numbering about 20,000 at its peak in the 1960s, is a dwindling community today.

Of British and European descent, this community has co-existed peacefully here since the past 500 years. Also known as domicile Indians, these are the children of colonialism who have survived the Dutch, French and English.

After WW II ended and it was clear that Britain would have to liberate its colonies including India, this well-settled and happy community wondered if there would be room for them in the new India.

Their acknowledged leader and barrister Frank Anthony united them by stressing their Indian culture and roots.

As member of the Constituent Assembly, he secured a special place for the community in the Constitution, including a reservation in parliament and some legislative assemblies.

Aiding him in his endeavour was the All-India Anglo-Indian Association, the bedrock of the community, now in its 127th year.

Immediately after Independence, there was a wave of migration, chiefly to Europe and England, but the exodus from here was to Australia, Britain, Canada, the US and New Zealand in the late 60s and early 70s.

Making the transition was very easy for them as all they had to prove was their descent from a British paternal grandfather. At the time, the refrain often heard from those immigrating was, “Wer’re selling out and going to Australia.”

The city stood helplessly watching the community known to be so full of beans setting up in a far off land they knew nothing of. As a result, today the population of this community has fallen to mere 2,500 families.

Concentrated mainly at Lalaguda, Secunderabad, or Little England, the Anglo-Indians were a really fun-loving and vibrant community.

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Pramod Ram Reddy – Telangana deities గురువారం, సెప్టెం 10 2009

Telangana milieu on canvas

Pramod Ram Reddy’s exhibition at Minaaz Art Gallery depicts deities, life and people of Nizamabad

Sri Lakshmi

THE WIDE canvas of Indian deities has been an integral part of our system. On one hand, their peculiar imagery, clothing and unrelated colouring notwithstanding, people unquestioningly accept and revere them, thus making them a part of their lives, more so in the villages and rural areas.

On the other, these deities, as wonderful works of art – extremely imaginative and aesthetic, have inspired creative people in various areas to experiment with them – weave stories, make paintings, designs sets, perform dramas and make textiles.

Artist G.Pramod Ram Reddy presents his paintings portraying the ruling deities of Nizamabad along with a few others, apart from depicting the life and people there. In retrospect, Pramod experimented with bolder themes and an alloyed attitude concerning colour, design, composition and line.

The alluring result that got him noticed was probably his effort to be `real’ and his talent, despite the inevitable influence of Klimt.

In the present exhibition, the earlier spirit of adventure and influx of experimentation is replaced by a more reticent and mellowed attitude where the artist effortlessly exercised his skills in colour, line and composition.

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Legislator with a difference- Sukka Pagadaalu బుధవారం, ఏప్రి 15 2009

Congress ex-MLA now a labourer

25 Mar 2009, G Arun Kumar & Siva G, TNN

Former Congress MLA Sukka Pagadaalu and her husband Sukka Dasu work at a construction site. (TOI Photo

SRIKAKULAM: She was a member of the AP Legislative Assembly representing the Congress from Patapatnam (SC) constituency between 1972-77. But that was then. Today, she is a daily wage labourer who earns Rs 60 per day to make both ends meet.

“We have a little land, but in the off-season, my husband and I have to work as labourers to make both ends meet. Life comes at a price these days,” rues the sprightly 64-year-old Sukka Pagadaalu as she lifts heaps of mud on her head at a construction site in her native Mukthapuram village in Srikakulam district in north coastal Andhra Pradesh.

This is one of the most backward parts of the state, barely 5 kms from the Orissa border and an area infested with Maoists.

As an ex-legislator, Sukka gets a pension but that is not enough — the family having incurred heavy debts to marry three daughters. The dalit woman now lives in a thatched hut — that leaks during rainy season — unlike the plush pads and comfy, breezy environs that present-day legislators and public representatives are used to live in.

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Heroes of Elections 2009 – Mary Francis fights displacement సోమవారం, ఏప్రి 6 2009

A housewife’s crusade

K.P.M. Basheer

 

PARTY: Independent

 

CONSTITUENCY: Ernakulam

 

STATE: Kerala

 

MISSION STATEMENT: I want this antiquated, inhuman law [Land Acquisition Act of 1894] overhauled. I don’t want anyone else to suffer the way I have.

 

Mary Francis knows pretty well that hers is a losing battle. But the 60-year-old housewife is standing to draw attention to what she sees as a life-and-death issue for thousands of people from Nandigram to the Narmada Valley — displacement in the name of development. Ms. Francis understands their pain well.

 

In February last year, her home and the carpentry workshop run by her husband on a quarter of an acre property on the tiny emerald island of Moolampally in the Kochi backwaters were demolished. The bulldozers, sent out by the Ernakulam district administration, were making way for a road to the Vallarpadam project — a Rs. 3,000-crore international container transhipment terminal of the Cochin Port Trust being constructed by India Gateway Terminals Limited on a build-operate-transfer basis.

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Kondapalli Seshagiri Rao – Artistic imprint of mythology శనివారం, Feb 28 2009

Unsung, yet on a song

 

 

 

 

CAN AN 80-year-old person move on his own? He, perhaps, needs a stick or someone to take him around within the house. But, for Kondapally Seshagiri Rao, an acclaimed painter, not a day passes without touching paint or brush.

All the big names who are in news for their creative paintings are disciples of Seshagiri Rao, who has maintained a low profile all his life training hundreds of students. Though he received several awards and recognised the world over, Telugus know little about this maestro. Unlike commercial artists who are making a fast buck, Rao remains contended with what he has got in life. Having retired from the College of Fine Arts and Craft, he was happily spending his time painting and playing with his grandchildren.

 

“I have no remorse. My specialisation is mythological painting and I derive great pleasure in painting them,” he explained. On the fellowship given by the Lalitha Kala Academy, Seshagiri Rao has completed 16 paintings depicting the Kalidasa’s Abhignana Shankulam which is yet to get published due to fund crunch.

 

It all began when the Minister, Mehdi Nawaj Jung, in the then Nizam Government, who spotted the creative talent in young Seshagiri Rao, sent him to the Shantinekatan to perfect the art. Struggling hard in life, he joined the Government services as teacher and went on to be become Principal of the college.

 

His paintings were exhibited in London, the US, Moscow and at several corners of the country.

one of the beautiful works of seshagiri rao

 

 

He was once recognised as the best painter by the Government of India. Rao specialised mainly in portraits, Indian painting, folk and mythological.

“I belong to Warangal and I learnt my first lessons from my masters here only,” he says proudly.

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అవును ఓడిపోయిన… బుధవారం, Feb 18 2009

 

అవును ఓడిపోయిన
ఆడీ ఆడీ ఓడిపోయిన…
జనం ‘ప్రభంజన’మౌతారనే
ఆశ అడుగంటి ‘అలిసిపోయిన’…
తోటిమనిషి బాగుకోరే మనసు
మాయమైన జాడలు తెలుసుకొని
‘లొంగిపోయిన’…
ఎవని కొరకు ఎవడూ
బతుకలేడని అర్థమైనంక
‘ఎవ్వనికి బుట్టిన బిడ్డంటే ఎక్కిపడి
ఏడ్సుడెందుక’ని ఎనకకు తగ్గిన…
పిట్టలకంటే అధ్వానంగా
మనుషులు సచ్చిపడుతుంటే
శవాల సంఖ్య తెలుసుకోవడానికి మాత్రమే
‘తపన’పడే మధ్య తరగతి
మందబుద్దికి మోకరిల్లిన..
కడుపుతీపి పంచలేక..
కడుపుకోత తుంచలేక..
అమ్మయ్యలాగమైతాంటే..
ఆగి..ఆగి..
ఆగ ‘మైదా(నా)ని’ కొచ్చిన..
జీవితమే ఆరాటమైనపుడు
బువ్వ దొరుకుడే పోరాటమైనపుడు
ప్రజాజీవనమే అరణ్యవాసమైనపుడు
సాటి మనిషే వర్గశత్రువై
సాయిధపోరాటం చేయవలిసినపుడు
పురుగుమందులు
నేతగుడ్డలే
ఎన్ కౌంటర్లు చేస్తున్నపుడు…
ఎలుగెత్తే గొంతులే పాలకుల
కౌలుగుల్లో జొరబడుతున్నపుడు
ఆపదకు అక్కరకు రావల్సిన
చేతులే ఔతలకెల్లగొడుతున్నపడు
‘ఊరికి చేసిన సేవ
శవానికి చేసిన సింగారమై’నపుడు
అడివెందుకు? నేల మాళిగలెందుకు?
ఏ.కే ఫార్టీ సెవెన్లెందుకు?
‘జీవం’ పోయిన శరీరంతో
పోరాడలేక ‘జనజీవనం’లో కొచ్చిన
అవును ఓడిపోయిన…
ఆడీ ఆడీ ఓడిపోయిన…

 
– రమేశ్ హజారి
ప్రోగ్రెసివ్ మీడియా సెంటర్ ,హైదరాబాద్

ఆంధ్రజ్యోతి 18 ఫిబ్రవరి 2009

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City that grew on love- Hyderabad శనివారం, జన 24 2009

When love is lost in the city of bridges

 

G S Vasu, the Indian Express

 

Puraana Pool is not just a mediaeval physical structure of stones and plaster across river Musi. It bridged many a gulf. Between a man and a woman. A prince and a pauper. A future king of a rich dominion and a dancing girl. A Muslim and a Hindu. Capital city Golconda and a small hamlet Chichlam.

 

However, in the four centuries that followed, the Musi has seen at least seven more physical structures, in the course of time erasing most of, if not all, emotional bridges.

 

The present day Hyderabad saw its foundation stone laid, in 1591, by Muhammad Quli (1566–1612), the fifth ruler of Qutb dynasty. Though it was true that the then capital Golconda was unable to cater to the emerging modern requirements and building a new capital was much in order, the choice of place has a legend behind it.

 

Quli, as a young prince, fell in love with a dancing girl Bhagmati, who used to live in Chichlam, a small hamlet near present day Shah –Ali – Banda. (The Deccani coinage Chichlam might be a distorted form of Chenchulagudem, similar to Chanchalguda now). The young prince was so enamoured by the dancing girl that he used to cross the Musi, even when it was in full spate, to meet his beloved.

 

Quli’s father and the then king Ibrahim ordered building the first bridge on the Musi, Puraana Pool in 1578. However, Quli has not lost the charm of the place of his first love and wanted to make that place eternal by setting up his new capital in 1581. One of the finest Urdu poets in his own right Quli wrote a couplet to celebrate the new city:

 

Mera shahar logan soon mamoor kar,

Rakhya joon toon darya mein

min ya sami

(Fill up my city with people,

My God, just as you have filled the river with fish).

 

Of course, Hyderabad over the years was filled with people, as the founder wished. But the bridges started getting destroyed and the river became uninhabitable for fish. The city is now seen as a fertile ground for communal divide. Refer to any communal tension and violence in the country, the needle of suspicion, sometimes with evidence, but most of the times as a ‘manufacturing doubt’, points to this city.

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