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.

Since the 20050-06 financial year the government has been spending about Rs 10,000 crore every year and has spent about Rs 50,000 crore till now. In the last five years 11 projects have been completed providing about 16 lakh acres of land with irrigation facilities.

Major projects like Polavaram, Pranahita-Chevella, Pulichintala, Ellampally, Dummugudem, Uttarandhra Sujala Sravanti and Galeru-Nagari Srujala Sravanti, which need more than Rs 20,000 crore, are yet to take off. The government is trying to secure the national project status to the Polavaram project.

As of now, about 60 projects are in various stages of construction and need about Rs 3,000 crore every month if they are to be completed in time. But the cash-strapped government is unable to release adequate funds, thus jeopardising their timely completion.

The government is now getting a revenue of about Rs 5,000 crore every month and has to spend most of the amount on salaries, maintenance, schemes like Rs 2 a kg rice, reimbursement of students’ fees, Arogya Sri, subsidy on power and seeds to farmers, subsidy to self-help groups and on the mid-day meal scheme.

Weighed down by the enormous burden the government is finding it virtually impossible to fund the irrigation projects. Hence non-release of funds in time.

The Hindu /Opinion 17 April 2006

GoM’s confidential report

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.

It was for the first time that the GoM heard from Shri Mohan Lal that the Income Tax Department deducted Rupees One lakh from every unit of 10 lakhs that was paid to the oustees by way of compensation and for purchase of land. It was Shri Mohan Lal again who said that people were pressurized to accept cash. He said that a bribe of Rs.20,000/- had to be paid for receipt of every cheque that was given to the oustees. The crowd present on the spot gave full-throated support to the Shri Mohan Lal who they said had represented their grievances correctly.

Dharampuri

From Khalghat, the GoM went to Dharampuri. It is the largest area selected by the Madhya Pradesh Government for settlement of oustees and 4,000 PAFs are slated to be settled there (No, they are shown to have been settled there already). Not a single plot of land has been occupied by any PAF.

Approximately 2,000 people, who had gathered there, explained through their representatives (about a dozen people explained their grievances) in detail and said that it was not possible for anybody to settle there as no infrastructure had been built. In official papers, it has been indicated that the PAFs have been settled. The GoM was amazed that no sanitation, no drinking water, no system of sewage, no roads, much less the facilities like hospital, water reservoir, school, post office etc., have been provided there. There is no hope that such infrastructure will be built there soon. The officials presented a status report in respect of R & R sites at Dharampuri indicating that facilities that need to be provided by way of infrastructure would be provided and certain facilities were in progress, whereas the GoM saw nothing happening around.

In any case, the PAFs, under no circumstances, can be settled there before first of July, 2006 when the monsoon sets in.

Dharampuri had been shown to the GoM as a success story by the Madhya Pradesh Government and it turned out to be the worst example of not doing anything by way of settlement when there was apparently no difficulty in respect of resources. The people there showed to the GoM two dry water pumps and a heap of stones that had been dumped there a day before the GoM’s arrival indicating that roads would be built soon.

Lakhangaon and Borlai 1-3

From Dharampuri, the GoM proceeded to visit R & R sites at Lakhangaon, Borlai 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The GoM saw some stray dwellings without any infrastructure such as drinking water, sewage system, electricity and roads etc.

As per the status report of the Madhya Pradesh Government, 18,965 PAFs were indicated to have been settled, whereas the GoM could see, at the most 80 incomplete dwellings in Lakhangaon, Borlai 1-3 (including the dwellings shown to the GoM at Picchodi). The GoM found that there were no amenities of life like drinking water, roads and electricity etc. anywhere. The only water reservoir in Borlai 3 was not operational. In Borlai 1-3, the GoM could not see any semblance of infrastructural facilities. In Lakhangaon, of course, some structures by way of hospital and a primary school (not functional) and three hand pumps showed the fact that a determined leadership can settle the oustees. One can see that PAFs (18 of them) here can be settled properly at Lakhangaon within next six months, provided effective effort is directed towards that goal.

Visit to Piplud, Awalda and Nisarpur

The members of Narmada Bachao Andolan had, among other things, urged the Minister for Water Resources that the GoM should visit Piplud, Awalda and Nisarpur so that GoM could ascertain properly whether the oustees from these submergence villages had been settled or not.

Piplud

Nearly 2,000 people had gathered at Piplud to state their tales of woe. They pointed out that not a single PAF had been offered cultivable agricultural land anywhere in Madhya Pradesh as per the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal (NWDT) Award. At this place, 10 representatives explained in detail that the NWDT Award had been flouted and even land acquisition proceedings had not been completed. They narrated that many of the oustees had not been offered compensation for their houses. They also said that many of those who had been pressurized to accept cash compensation, had been given amounts of money with which they could not purchase even 2 acres of land, let alone 5 acres of land to which they were entitled. A tribal named Kailash from Bhikheda explained that more than 300 persons from Manavar Tehsil had been shown in records to have been offered one plot of land measuring 7 hectares in Borgaon and strangely enough, the land was not cultivable. The representatives of these oustees gave details how people were pressurised to accept cash compensation and how people had to pay bribes for receipt of cheques.

Awalda

The GoM next proceeded to Awalda, a far flung village inhabited mostly by adivasis and tribals. The GoM felt that, by any standards, the entire population in the village lived below the poverty line. A group of 1,500 people met the GoM there and the youth there were restive and narrated their tales of woes in a very emotional manner. It was here that people said that they had not been given land for land and that they had been pressurized to accept cash and an oustee Shri Motilal Patidar of village Chhota Barde said that he had been given Rs.5,53,000/- whereas he needed to purchase 5 acres of land for Rs.13 lakhs and this cash award was not adequate at all and he was forced to accept it. The entire crowd raised slogans against cash compensation and they said it was a fraud and officers insisted on this because they received bribes. It was in this crowd, that a woman Sajan Bhai Yadav, who had come from Pipri Gaon, narrated most pathetically how they (the oustees) had lost their home and hearth, their Khaliyan and Shamshan and they were now on the roadside. The crowd said that the Gram Sabha was never consulted and every thing was happening “Zabardasti”. The crowd said that they had no money to travel to Bhopal and seek redressal of their grievances. The people at Piplud and Awalda had categorically stated that no member of R & R Sub-committee or the Grievance Redressal Authority (GRA) ever visited these villages. It was stated in good detail that Chairman of the Redressal Authority was headquartered at Bhopal and he once in a while visited Indore and never did Justice Sohani, Chairman of the Grievance Authority visit these villages.

Nisarpur

The GoM finally came to Nisarpur where a crowd of 4,000 people voiced its grievances through 18 representatives which included four women. The administration had succeeded in telling the crowd that they must allow the representatives to present their case in an orderly manner.

So, M/s Parasmat Kanawat (having been Sarpanch of Nisarpur for 30 years) Pradeep Kumar, Bagirath Rathore, Mangti Bhai & others narrated pathetic tales of extreme high-handedness on the part of Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA). They categorically stated that not a single family of the PAFs in Nisarpur had been settled as per orders of the Supreme Court. They said in one voice that until they were rehabilitated, there was no question of allowing the height of the dam to be raised. They said that the R & R sites at Nisarpur which is supposed to settle 700 families of oustees did not have any infrastructure and the house plots for building their houses were located at the depressed land which gets water logged and one of the essential needs of the site was drainage, which was missing. The people said that NVDA officials claimed that R & R sites would be ready by 30th of June, 2006 and it was a rude joke to the oustees. The oustees said that these claims were absolutely false. They claimed that R & R sub-group and the GRA had never visited the Narmada Valley for the last six years. They rejected cash payments as a fraudulent practice. The crowd vociferously demanded that their Rehabilitation & Resettlement should be a pre-condition for raising the height of the dam.

General Observations

1. The complaints from various quarters that the Rehabilitation and Resettlement of oustees of Sardar Sarovar Dam has not taken place in consonance with the orders of the Supreme Court have been found to be correct.

2. In spite of the extreme shortcomings in respect of Rehabilitation and Resettlement of oustees, the Madhya Pradesh Government can organize proper effort for rehabilitation, say, within a year from now. The leadership there has to show its political will to accomplish this gigantic task.

3. The Chief Minister of Gujarat had assured the Water Resources Ministry, in a recent letter, that Rehabilitation and Resettlement in Madhya Pradesh could be fully ensured in accordance with the orders of the Supreme Court. It will have to be ascertained as to how Gujarat Government could come to the rescue of the Madhya Pradesh Government in this behalf.

4. The outcry against the SRP (cash award) must be responded by stopping this practice as it has bred corruption and thousands of people the GoM met in the valley, have rejected the same as a practice breeding corruption. Besides, this practice has been adopted by the State Government with the approval of the GRA. It is yet to be seen whether the Supreme Court would find this practice to be in line with its specific instruction which said: “every displaced family whose more than 25% of agricultural landholding was acquired would be entitled to be allotted irrigable land of its choice to the extent of land acquired subject to the prescribed ceiling with a minimum of two hectares land and that project-affected families (PAFs) would be allotted a house/plot free of cost”.

5. The GoM found that there was no moral and legal justification for deducting Rupees One lakh by way of Income Tax for every unit of Rupees Ten lakhs that is to be given to an oustee as a settlement under SRP.

6. In due course of time, the Government must explore a better system of redressal of grievances than what is sought under the present GRA. It is a fact that 5000 petitions for redressal of grievance are pending before the GRA. The Chairman of the GRA is headquartered at Bhopal and his visits even to Indore are few and far between which has meant a great hardship for the oustees.

7. The position of the adivasis (oustees), particularly in the areas like Kakrana and Kharia Bhadal, which the GoM could not visit, is reportedly very bad. The GoM will pay a visit there if required, in due course of time.

8. The Ministry of Water Resources had been insisting that Madhya Pradesh Government should adopt the mechanism of referring ATRs to Gram Panchayats according to the previous Government’s assurance given in the then Chief Minister’s letter of 29th August, 2003. Since the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has finally responded positively on this issue recently, the ATRs will now be sent to Gram Panchayats, as stated by the Chief Minister in his meeting with us on April 7, 2006. That will, however, not have any effect on the problems at hand.

9. The GoM felt concerned about SCs & STs for whom there doesn’t seem to be any special provision in respect of Rehabilitation and Resettlement.

10. The reports of the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Sub Group and the GRA on the basis of which Narmada Control Authority (NCA) granted permission for raising the height has been largely paperwork and it has no relevance with the situation on the ground.

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.

“We are what we are,” says Sandra. “But we have become responsible and hard working.” In fact, they were more always Anglo than Indian, Western in values, dress, language and food habits.

They made successful convent teachers, nurses and secretaries and even lent class and glamour to the emerging career in the skies, air hostessing, and in modelling, as Miss World Diana Hayden proved.

Who can forget the best co-ed school, Mrs Roshier’s, where the present-day New Citi Hospital stands on SD Road? Or Miss Zinda Ferns, principal of Faust School, Miss Iona Lynch of St Ann’s High School, and the Cooper sisters, among others.

The men worked in the railways, postal department and army and were also auto garage mechanics. Today, with education given paramount importance, young Anglo-Indians are into call centre jobs, computers and teaching.

Being professionally qualified post-graduates in different disciplines, they are on a par with others.

The community here keeps in touch with relatives now settled in Little India, Melbourne through visits, donations and an annual reunion.

Besides, the Anglo-Indian Association’s community bi-monthly magazine, The Review, keeps everyone in touch with happenings here.

Have the changing times made them change their ways too? No, says Rosanne Besterwtich, secretary, Anglo-Indian Association, Secunderabad.

Now quite indistinguishable from their friends and neighbours, the women wear saris and salwar kameez, the kids disco with verve to the latest Hindi film hits and watch Bollywood movies. Though English is still their mother tongue, they speak Hindi and Telugu with equal ease.

Life is on a roll for all those who are here, since the association makes it a point to hold a function every month. Sometimes, it’s a picnic where they let their hair down, other times a puppet show or a cricket match.

But very soon, the queen of all events will be celebrated: The May Queen Ball. But before that, there’s Easter today, when the community will join in for mass at the various churches, followed by traditional fun, festivities and fare.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/610509.cms

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.

The deities such as Veera Lakshmi Gaja Lakshmi, Aishwarya Lakshmi, Venkateshwara Swamy and Dhairya Lakshmi Goda Devi are translated on to the paper in all their finery – dark brown faces, blooming garlands in oranges, reds and yellows, resplendent clothes, all highlighted by dexterous silver lines running across the pictures, while goddesses Sri Gouri and Basara Saraswathi emerge in a minimal palette of whites and luminous lemon yellows. Working to the intricate detail with `clear’ flowing lines on the ultramarine blue background, the paintings accentuate Pramod’s steadied approach.

The other section of the exhibition, depicting people from Nizamabad also falls in the same line, minus the finery of the goddesses. Man with hen in few relative colours of whites and greys, and a brown hen is a mark of simplicity and beauty.

Pramod does bring the Telangana milieu alive, yet one craves to see more of the talented artist endowed with a spirit of adventure and a good facility to experiment, rather than the heavily loaded influences of the senior and better-known artist Vaikuntam. About the artist, 31-year-old Pramod had several group shows in Hyderabad, Warangal and Baroda, a solo show at Kala Bhavan in Hyderabad and has participated in several art camps. He has executed one mural each, at JNTU College of Fine Arts from where he graduated and at the Faculty of Fine arts, M.S.University, Baroda from where he completed his Masters in Painting. His paintings are exhibited in various private and public collections in USA and India. Presently he works as an art instructor at RBVRR educational Society at Nizamabad that also support Pramod’s artistic activities.

B.PADMA REDDY

Source: Metro Plus Hyderabad, The Hindu, 28 October 2002 http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/10/28/stories/2002102801450200.htm

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.

Ironically, Sukka served as a village sarpanch too after she lost the elections from Palakonda constituency in Srikakulam in 1978 on the Congress ticket. But Sukka still vouches for Congress. “I was one among 33 women legislators elected to the assembly in 1972,” she recalls. She holds former PM Indira Gandhi in high esteem. Displaying a picture of hers with Indira Gandhi, she says: “Leaders in those days were selfless. The current lot only crave for power, moolah and riches.”

Curiously, the Patapatnam constituency from where she was elected was reserved only during 1967 and 1972 polls and later it was made general seat. This time around, the Congress candidate from the seat is Andhra Pradesh’s forests minister Satrucharla Vijayaramaraju. Sukka recalls that Satrucharla came to her village a few months ago.

“I showed him our leaky roof and asked for help. He promised to have a slab put. I went to meet him a few times after that but neither has he come back nor has the slab,” the former MLA said.

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

source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Congress-ex-MLA-now-a-labourer/articleshow/4311981.cms

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.

Along with Ms. Francis, nine other families were forcibly evicted. Overnight, they turned homeless. The Land Acquisition Act of 1894, a law of colonial vintage which permits acquiring the houses and properties of citizens for a ‘public purpose’, was applied to evict them.

“I want this antiquated, inhuman law overhauled,” she says. “I don’t want anyone else to suffer the way I have.” The best way to do it, in her view, is to make it an electoral issue.

“I am contesting the Lok Sabha election from Ernakulam to raise the issue in Parliament and get the law overhauled by incorporating safeguards as well as provisions for the total rehabilitation of people before they are evicted.”

Appropriately, her electoral symbol is the tent. According to C.R. Neelakantan, her campaign committee chairman and a senior functionary of the Moolampally Agitation Coordination Committee that has fielded Ms. Francis, it is the ‘symbol of evictees and homeless people.’ Five of the 10 evicted families still live in plastic tents, he points out.

The coordination committee has relentlessly fought for the 326 families whose properties have been acquired for the Vallarpadam project. Kadamakkudy panchayat, which comprises a string of islands that includes Moolampally, is less than 20 km from Kochi city but is accessible only by boat.

The Moolampally agitation has the support of Medha Patkar, Mahasweta Devi and a host of national-level activists and intellectuals. The coordination committee’s 45-day agitation helped the 10 families to get Rs. 60,000 each to find alternative housing for 10 months and a better compensation package than initially offered. They have been offered house plots in lieu of the acquired properties, though that is yet to come through.

Francis Kalathil, convener of the coordination committee, said that the Central government should immediately amend the Land Acquisition Act by incorporating strict provisions for rehabilitation and compensation at market rate. “We are contesting this election for the right to rehabilitation before eviction,” a determined Ms. Francis asserts.

source: The Hindu 6 April 2009 http://www.hindu.com/2009/04/05/stories/2009040559191400.htm

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.

Asked to comment on the recent trends in painting, particularly the recent artists choosing abstract, Seshagiri Rao says he cannot comment, but adds that anyone who sees a painting should get joy, draw inspiration and develop a zeal to become a painter himself or herself.

The Parcha Ranga Rao Memorial Trust has rightly chosen Seshagiri Rao this year to felicitate him in recognition of his services in the field of art.

“Irrespective of caste and creed, the trust has decided to honour the unsung heroes,” said Parcha Kodandarama Rao of the trust.

By Gollapudi Srinivas Rao
in Warangal

source- The Hindu, Life, March 9, 2004

http://www.hindu.com/lf/2004/03/09/stories/2004030901470200.htm

Kondapalli Seshagiri Rao

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.

In fact, Hyderabad has no history of communal tension and violence till late 1930s and even after that there are so many economic and political factors than religious ones. The cosmopolitan culture, which made the Muslim kings write poetry in Telugu and observe Hindu customs on one hand and Hindu subjects call the Muslim king with Hinduised names like Malkibharaama (Mulk Ibrahim), has now given way to a paranoia where every second person is a suspect.

The city that grew on love is now replaced by a culture where there is a stinking and vulgar affluence peacefully (or explosively?) co-existing with bitter misery. The city that attempted to introduce modernity in education, health, drinking water, transport and communications, way back in the 18th and 19th century still exhibits large patches of pre-modern existence with some islands of conspicuous post-modern ultra-rich extravagance. What is happening to the city? Whither Hyderabad?

Source: The New Indian Express, 16 January 2009