Articles
What an Extravagance
Dt: 15/4/15
What an Extravagance
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
The capital of Andhra Pradesh is in Hyderabad. The Ministers come on tour to the capital. The Chief Minister flies from the capital city to different places in the state for four days in a week. There is a camp office in Lake View Guest House in Hyderabad more or less in the center of the city. A second camp office at a cost of Rs. 25 lakhs was got up at Gandipeta which is in a corner of Hyderabad.
2. The Chief Minister is shifting from his own residence to a rented house for the time it takes to demolish has own house and construct one according to vastu. For the security alone Rs. 75 lakhs are being spent on this rented house. More will be incurred to make the place fit to seat visitors waiting to meet him. A third camp office is being got up in Vijayawada at a cost of Rs. 2 cr. Those citizens of Andhra Pradesh who have to come to their capital city by road in their vehicles have to pay an entry tax.
3. Rs. 20,000 cr is the deficit for the state. Since the Telengana state increased the salaries of its employees by 43% in celebration of securing the Telengana state, the Chief Minister of A.P raised the salary of Andhra Pradesh’s employees by an equal 43%. Since the Telengana State increased the pensions for old people by four times, Andhra Pradesh also increased the pension by equal amount. Since the Telengana’s Chief Minister sanctioned Rs. 10 cr for celebration of Bathukamma festival ; and some more amounts for some other festivals , the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh sanctioned about Rs. 237 cr for the (Chief Minister) Chandranna Sankranti Kanukalu for the poor people in his state besides giving for every district and every Mandal lakhs of rupees for celebrating that festival. He also announced that for Deepavali also, there will be kanukalu for poor families. Since there is no capital city in the state as yet, Ambedkar’s Jayanti was celebrated in one town; the cabinet meeting was held at another town; the Andhra Pradesh day will be celebrated on June 2nd in an area designated as future capital of the state. Government ministers and others are becoming tourists to different cities of the state, for functions of the state.
4. For the ostensible purpose of getting investments from foreign countries the Chief Minister is visiting Singapore frequently and then has gone on tour to China and would be going to many other countries. There is no effort to inspire the people and tell them the truth that ours is a state without financial resources, that wealth can be created only by hard work and entrepreneurship and that many works have to be carried out with people’s participation as during the Janmabhoomi programs during his earlier tenure as the Chief Minister (1995-2004). It appears that all decisions will be taken only by the Chief Minister and his up and upcoming Sanjay Gandhi that is, Lokesh.
5. Governance is at the lowest. Grievances of the people do not appear to be reaching the Chief Minister. He is going from town to town telling people that “I will build Singapore- like capital, I will get foreign investment and investments from domestic companies in all the cities of Andhra Pradesh, I will build Swarnadhra ; all the natural resources that the state has, will be acquired fully by me to create prosperity and deliver happiness to the people”. There appears to be only a few people who matter and to whom his decision are revealed.
6. All this is not good for the state and the people . Resentment is building up . Unfortunately there does not appear to be an alternative his leadership. The one on the horizon is the one whose properties are being attached by the enforcement directorate as ill-gotten wealth. (650 words)
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