Assessment of people’s awareness and reactions to the spending of millions of rupees on the new capital city in a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh.
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
This introductory chapter will focus on the historical background of the formation of Andhra Pradesh to the present situation where the state is in bifurcation process. Andhra state was formed on October 1, 1953 as a result of struggle of Telugu speaking people to promote their culture. It was the first linguistic state formed after India’s independence. But there were demands for the unified Telugu speaking state rising after 1953. So, in the interest of Telangana people “safeguards for Telangana” was signed which is popularly known as the Gentleman’s Agreement, 1956. Telangana people accepted to be a part of Andhra Pradesh since they would have their share of fruits of development in a unified Andhra Pradesh. Thus the state of Andhra Pradesh came into being from November 1, 1956.
Unified Andhra Pradesh consisted of three distinct regions called as Telangana, Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra. They were distinct in their historical, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. The state of Andhra Pradesh could not continue without its disturbances. One such disturbance was a violent agitation called the Jai Telangana movement in 1969 which was raised out of discontent of Telangana People for not implementing Gentleman’s agreement especially in terms of power sharing, utilization of surplus revenues, education and employment opportunities. Separate statehood demands started in Andhra Pradesh initially from Telangana. The then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi announced a eight point plan in favour of Telangana people and also acted tough on agitating Leaders. This way normalcy returned to the state.
On the other hand people from coastal Andhra were feeling alienated from government services as it was difficult to enter services in Telangana Region. This discontent along with a series of court judgments against the entry into services led to Jai Andhra movement, 1972. Smt. Indira Gandhi again intervened as she could sense that there was again an agitation situation in Andhra Pradesh. She announced a “Six-Point Formula” which would address comprehensively all the problems in the state. For the effective implementation of this formula, a constitutional amendment was made in 1973. It was incorporated as special provisions in the constitution (Article 371-D). The coming years of Andhra Pradesh has seen development in agricultural and industrial fronts mainly because of political stability and there was no further agitations on separate statehood at least till 2009.
“Six-point formula paved the way for a reasonably enduring political stability and sustained economic growth for about three decades in the State, despite occasional voicing of Telangana sentiment and a few minor agitations here and there”. - Srikrishna Committee Report, p.41
The Telangana Issue resurfaced in 2001 with the popularity of Telangana Rashtra Samithi(TRS) led by K.Chandrasekhar Rao winning the most of Panchayat elections. Subsequently, Congress and TRS formed alliance in 2004 assembly elections. Congress manifesto also stated that it considered the demands of separate Telangana based on consensus among various stakeholders. But there was no concrete development with regard to separate statehood till 2009. In 2009, K. Chandrasekhar Rao began fast onto death for the cause of separate Telangana. On, December 9, 2009 centre announced its decision to initiate the process of separate Telangana and subsequently formed Srikrishna Committee to look into the Telangana issue which submitted its report in December, 2010. Finally in February 2014, Andhra Pradesh reorganization bill was passed in parliament and Telangana State would be officially come into existence from appointed day, June 2, 2014.
But the contentious point for both Telangana as well as Andhra people now is the state capital city of Hyderabad. It is a well known fact that Hyderabad has received huge investments from Andhra people and there are many Andhra people working here. Now, since Hyderabad is landlocked from all sides and is in Telangana, for all practical purposes Government is thinking of building a new capital city in Coastal Andhra or Rayalaseema. There is neither policy of the government in forming a new capital nor there is any precedent in selecting a new capital in circumstances like the existing situation. The government is proceeding with setting up a search committee to decide on a new capital city. It is in this context that this research on assessing the awareness of people on creation of new capital becomes important.
1.2 Research focus
There is some confusion in the creation of new capital city. There are many competing claims form different parts of Andhra since Hyderabad will be capital to Andhra and Telangana only for the next ten years. Serious issues need to be considered while creating a new capital city, because of the development of Hyderabad as capital in unified Andhra Pradesh, most of the investments, industries, employment, government offices etc., are concentrated in and around Hyderabad. This became a contentious issue while the state is in process of bifurcation. So, the creation of new capital should be with a vision considering future potential, problems and other developmental issues. Also, opinion of people needs to be considered as this is a sensitive issue which will govern the lives of future generations in Andhra. This process would also have serious repercussions in other parts of the country which are also agitating for a separate state.
Srikrishna committee in its report has described some cities in Andhra and Rayalaseema which are prosperous and which can be developed for further development. We can see the consequences of not developing all the regions of the state in a proper and equitable manner. Clearly, government investing in various cities in a single state would promote other investments also to flow into the same cities. And when it comes to creation of new capital lots of money, time and energy has to be invested. This is not so easy in a nation where at least half of its people are most vulnerable to various forms of poverty. Every rupee spent has to be managed efficiently.
In this context, awareness of people on creating a new capital city gains prominence. Understanding how people are perceiving the creation of new capital city and their views on the process of creation of a new capital city is therefore an area which is worthy of study and research on this would contribute to the knowledge on governing cities. The importance of research in this field becomes more important given the fact that there is lack of research in this area. Major focus of this research will concentrate on people’s perception on creation of new capital, how much time and money it would take to create one capital. What place do they think is beneficial to build a new capital city? What are they expecting out of a new capital city? To gain further understanding into what is people’s perception in this topic, empirical data collection was done. Since creating a new capital city is going to decide the fortunes of many people and their daily lives, it is indeed an area worthy of study.
1.3 Research Objective and Research Questions
The objective of this research is to study and analyse the impact of bifurcation on the psyche of people and awareness of people on the creation of new capital city in a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. This study also tries to understand the impact of bifurcation on the Indian economy in general and the economy of two states in particular due to excessive spending of money on establishing a new capital without doing a cost benefit analysis. In order to understand the awareness of people on this issue it is felt there is a need to understand the sources of information on the process of bifurcation as well as capital creation. It would be difficult to understand the perception of people without actually knowing how they are guided and by which they are being educated on the process. Further, the research will need to assess the awareness of people about the bifurcation process, whether they are satisfied with the procedures adopted, what is their perception about the way in which it was done. This study explores the experiences and views of the people in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Two main research modes are adopted for the completion of this study: Literature review was done on available literature on this topic, but not much of literature is available on this issue. Empirical data was collected in the three regions of AP and analysed. The chapter on the research methods would explain further on the research strategy and data collection methods that the researcher has undertaken in this study.
Within the larger context of bifurcation of state and new capital city creation, the objectives of this research are to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the sources of information on the process of creation of new capital city?
2. What is the impact of transferring of funds (by centre) for the creation of a new capital city on the developmental process of the country?
3. What is the level of awareness of people, their ideas and views about the way of creation of new capital and state bifurcation?
4. As a result of the above research questions, recommendations on educating people about capital creation and state bifurcation will be formulated.
Research Question One focuses on the sources of information from which the people are being educated. Question Two will be focusing on the impact of transfer of funds to this bifurcated state from the centre to set up a new capital city. Since India is a developing country and runs on deficit budgets, we try to investigate what will be the impact by this funds transfer on the developmental process of the country. Question Three focuses on the awareness of people about the process that is undertaken for the creation of new capital. It also considers the perception of people on to why do they think bifurcation is happening. It takes into account where do the people want a new capital to come up and how much do they think will be required to build a new capital in terms of money and time. Finally, Question Four is not written as a question but as an output, proposing recommendations based on the analysis of empirical data. The questions are interlinked in nature and surround the process of creation of new capital city.
1.4 Value of this Research
This research will contribute in the process of developing awareness of people in many ways. Firstly, by understanding the sources through which people build their perceptions, secondly by assessing the awareness of people on an important issue of their daily life (connected to the state they are part of and thirdly by obtaining the views of various views by people from different regions. This would be particularly important for the governance process of the country as the governments should be transparent and accountable in all the decisions that it makes. Government should ensure that people have sufficient awareness and knowledge on issues of importance. This research would help in knowing what people perceive about the government way of dealing with the governance issues.
2. Review of Literature
2.1 Introduction
The literature review will examine the main issues that surround the process of state bifurcation and creation of a new capital city. The only literature available of this topic is mainly about Gentleman’s agreement prior to merger of Telangana and Andhra, some sporadic writings on the agitations of Jai Telangana and Jai Andhra movements and Srikrishna committee report on the situation of Andhra Pradesh in 2010. But none of these carry any specific data or analysis about setting a capital city, its impact on the economy and for further developmental process. Only a brief review of Gentleman’s agreement and Srikrishna committee report is done as former was the basis for creation of a united AP and the later is the latest government report on the situation in AP.
The Gentlemen’s Agreement of Andhra Pradesh (1956) was signed by both Andhra and Telangana Leaders before the state of Andhra Pradesh was formed. This agreement was basically a set of safeguards that are meant to protect the people of Telangana in a united AP. Some of the important provisions deal with the special provisions in government services, education facilities, legislature, and budgetary allocations to Telangana. The agreement basically was to make sure that the people from prosperous Andhra should not dominate the Telangana people. The violations of the terms in agreement is put forward today for the basis of Separate Telangana agitation.
After the demand for Telangana became intense, Government of India set up a committee to look into the situation of Andhra Pradesh in February 2010 called Committee for Consultations on the Situation in Andhra Pradesh, famously called as Srikrishna committee which gave its report in December 2010. The committee took views and suggestions from various political parties, social organizations, stakeholders and toured extensively in Andhra Pradesh. It recommended six options as a way forward for Andhra Pradesh and put various findings of economic and developmental parameters regarding the development of the state. Even while recommending division of state; it did not comment anything substantial on a new capital city.
2.2 Emerging Issues and Need for Empirical Research
My research objective is to study and analyse the impact of bifurcation on the psyche of people and awareness of people on the creation of new capital city in a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. This is an emerging issue in the governance and politics of India which will have an impact on centre-state relations. There has been no research done on the awareness of people on the creation of new capital city. India has previously seen various states being divided like Uttaranchal carved out of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand out of Bihar and Chhattisgarh out of Madhya Pradesh. Their capitals were made as Dehradun, Ranchi and Raipur. But there has been no official document from Government of India or those respective states about the amounts of money that has been spent on these capital cities creations.
While searching for books and articles, the researcher has come across some books specifying about the architecture and planning of the new capital cities but nowhere about the huge amounts of money spent on it. There has been absolutely no literature available on the impact of these cities creation on the economy of the country. So, the researcher had to depend majorly on the newspaper articles and magazines after verifying their claims from multiple sources. He has taken a cue from daily events that have been surrounding the setting up of a capital city in Andhra Pradesh. This research will bring to the forefront many unanswered questions in the process of bifurcation and will highlight the need for empirical research on this topic.
3. Research Methodology
3.1 Research Design
To examine my objectives of research, exploratory and cross sectional study was undertaken to provide rich and meaningful information through structured in depth interviews. Exploratory studies are those which are undertaken when there is very less available and much has to be explored regarding the topic. Cross sectional studies are those in which research is designed by taking a cross section of it at one time from the population (Ahuja R, 2001). This research design was undertaken keeping in mind the type of information that was required out of respondents, particularly their awareness on the topic. For this purpose, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used namely informal interviews and interview schedule.
3.2 Research Site
This study was conducted in three major regions of Andhra Pradesh.
· Telangana
· Coastal Andhra
· Rayalaseema
Figure 3.1: Andhra Pradesh Map
In Telangana, the study was conducted in Hyderabad and Rangareddy districts. In Coastal Andhra some prosperous cities like Guntur and Visakhapatnam were chosen for this study. In Rayalaseema, Anantapur and Kurnool were selected for the purpose of this study.
Profile of area of study: Separate statehood for Telangana is based on the argument that they are the most backward in all the three regions of AP. But Srikrishna committee has come up with official statistics that show that over a period of twenty years; it is Rayalaseema region that is most deprived in terms of many indicators like agricultural growth, education, irrigation facilities and many more. It showed with official statistics that Telangana is nearer to coastal Andhra in terms of development and better than Rayalaseema. Clearly, the data below shows when it comes to economic performance Telangana even excluding Hyderabad has performed better than other two regions. Telangana has shown unprecedented growth after 1993-94 as shown in the figure.
Figure 3.2: Growth rates of AP
3.3 Sample Size
The samples for this study were chosen from three regions of Andhra Pradesh as shown in the area of study. The sample size chosen for the study was one hundred people from different areas. Thirty samples each were collected from Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Ten samples were collected from the capital city of Hyderabad.
Figure 3.3: Sample Size
3.4 Sampling Procedure
Random stratified sampling technique was used for the study at all the places. Sufficient care was taken that people from different educational qualifications, ages and sexes would be interviewed. Respondents consisted of government offices, street vendors, students, local shopkeepers, petty traders, software employees, house wives and various private employees. The interviews were conducted in morning hours as well as evening hours based on the flexibility and available time of respondents.
The data collection was done over a period of two months from November to December in 2013. Initially, data was collected in Visakhapatnam and Guntur districts of coastal Andhra. Later data was collected from Rangareddy district of Telangana and Kurnool district of Rayalaseema. Finally ten samples were collected from respondents in Hyderabad.
3.5 Data Saturation
After visiting the coastal Andhra for data collection, I had to change my questionnaire to make it more objective and focused on my research objectives. No new questions came up during the discussions but different descriptive views were shared by the respondents.
3.6 Analytical Framework
Exploratory study was undertaken to assess the awareness of people on the creation of new capital city in a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh and also to understand and analyse the perceptions of different socio-economic groups on the process of creation of capital city. Questionnaire was prepared before hand and interview was done accordingly. Data was noted on the questionnaire and a note was taken whenever there were descriptive answers. IBM SPSS Version 20 was used for the purpose of statistical analysis, cross tabulation and graphical representation.
3.7 Issues of Validity
This study is not biased towards gender, religion, caste, class, region etc., and is only an exploratory study of the awareness of people on the process of creation of a new capital city.
· Peer Review-To ensure issues of validity, Peer Review was taken up. I requested two of my colleagues as well as faculty members to review the report for the purpose of improving the quality and suggesting improvements.
· Member checking: I rechecked the answers of certain questions with respondents on the content and asking same questions differently. In this way I could understand that they have understood my question correctly and thereby answered it accordingly.
3.8 Ethical Process Followed
During the information seeking process participants were informed about the purpose of the study, briefly explained about the need for information, they were informed and assured about the privacy and confidentiality of the received information. As some participants were hesitant to share their personal information, they were not insisted on doing so and at the end of the conversation they were briefed on the interview notes. The privacy of the informant is maintained in the research proceeding and their identity has not been revealed. The data that was collected was not shared with anybody else and kept only for the research purpose.
3.9 Limitations of the Study
There are limitations to this research. The main source of data collection was by interviews where the respondents can exhibit bias or poor memory recall. Firstly, this was taken care by making sure that researcher was collecting data not from few respondents but depending on a variety of respondents. A number of views were collected on the same issues from different people who has different educational backgrounds and who belong to different regions in the state. Secondly, all the questions were detailed and were logically connected, so the researcher could understand the respondent connection of answers and that he is not answering randomly. Finally, all the answers were documented, compared and analysed in such a manner that any misinformation to be minimised.
While doing the required research, there was also a time constraint taking into account the amount of time available for dissertation apart from the subjects the researcher had to complete as a part of his course. The time allocated for this dissertation from the start to end can be said as negligible if one takes into account data collection, data tabulation, data analysis using SPSS and making necessary modifications under the guidance of research guide. So, there was not much time to concentrate on every aspect of the subject taken; only relevant topics were taken up strategically to complete the dissertation on time.
4. Main Findings and Analysis
This chapter reveals the results of the study described in the chapter Three Research Methodology. The research concentrates on people from three regions of Andhra Pradesh who will be impacted by the bifurcation of the state. This chapter will be approached in a structured way. First a description of the data collected shall be taken up and results of the questions will be given one by one along with the tables which will summarise the answers provided by the people based on their perceptions. At the end of this chapter the summary of responses to the questions will be given thematically.
4.1 Description of the Data
The data is collected from three regions of Andhra Pradesh namely, Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. Thirty samples were collected from each region and ten samples from the city of Hyderabad were collected for this study. This was a random stratified sampling. So the data collected had different stratifiers in terms of age, sex, educational status, caste and occupation.
Figure 4.1 Sample Size Bar Chart
The pie charts given below in the table shows different categories of respondents. In a total of hundred samples, Figure 4.2 shows the educational status of respondents from the three regions. Majority of the respondents, 39 of them have a bachelors degree, 29 have an intermediate degree and 20 of them have a Masters degree and above. Only one among all the persons is an illiterate. The working definition of an illiterate in this research is that anyone who hasn’t attended formal schooling at all. Anyone with a formal schooling for any number of years but less than matriculation is taken another category as shown below.
Educational Status
Frequency
Cumulative Percent
<=Matriculation
11
11.0
Intermediate
29
40.0
Bachelors Degree
39
79.0
Masters And above
20
99.0
Illiterate
1
100.0
Total
100
Figure 4.2: Educational Status
Occupation
Frequency
Cumulative Percent
Private Employee
26
26.0
Government Employee
26
52.0
Business
20
72.0
Student
8
80.0
Others
20
100.0
Total
100
Figure 4.3: Occupation
Figure 4.3 shows the occupational status of the respondents where the majorities are government as well as private employees. Private employees consisted of software employees, small job holders; contract employees etc., There are 20 business people in the respondents who were most concerned about the future of the markets if the state was divided. Among the others in occupation were housewives and unemployed youth. Figure 4.4 shows the caste of the respondents. Caste in this research was incidental but no analysis was done on the basis of caste in this research. This figure is shown only to show that all castes were included in the respondents.
Caste
Frequency
Cumulative Percent
SC
23
23.0
ST
12
35.0
OBC
32
67.0
GENERAL
33
100.0
Total
100
Figure 4.4: Caste
The age group included in the research was between 20-70 years who have at least an idea about the bifurcation process. There were 55 male respondents and 45 female respondents. This shows that even when random stratified sampling was done, enough care was taken by the researcher to include all the categories of people into the research for a balanced understanding about the topic.
4.2 Analysis of the Data
Question 1: The first question was: Do you think the state should be divided?
Response: Majority of the respondents, 71 of them have said that they wanted the state to be divided. These responses were irrespective of the regions that they belonged to. Even some of the coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema respondents who had initially fought for a united AP, now considered dividing the state is better than being forcefully untied.
Table 4.1: Region which you belong to * Do you think the state should be divided or not? Cross tabulation
Do you think the state should be divided or not?
Total
Yes
No
Don’t know
Region which you belong to
Rayalaseema
22
7
1
30
Telangana
22
7
1
30
Telangana(Hyderabad)
8
2
0
10
Coastal Andhra
19
9
2
30
Total
71
25
4
100
One of the respondents from coastal Andhra answered “If the people from Telangana think that we are exploiting them, and then there is no way we can compel them to be with us. Anyway fighting daily for this is useless. Let us see after bifurcation which state will show more progress. Then they will understand what they have really fought for.” One of the interesting things about the respondents for this question was that only four of them told that they don’t know whether they should be divided. Even most of the illiterates also had something to say about this. This shows the interest and concern of people regarding the question. Thus, from this question it is evident that majority of respondents do have an idea about the bifurcation process.
Question 2: What do you think is major cause for the division of AP?
Figure 4.5: Bar chart of Cross tabulation for question 2
Response: This question was mainly asked to know the perception of people from three regions with varied levels of education and to know on what they think about the biggest reason why the state has been divided. Respondents from Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra answered that this division was done mainly for the electoral gains for the congress in Telangana region. Many of the respondents opined that his was the congress strategy to win the next elections and had nothing to do with the backwardness of any region. Even in Telangana, where majority of them opined that backwardness was the reason of division, there were some respondents who stated that political reasons dominated other valid reasons.
Question 3: How do you think Bifurcation is beneficial to AP?
Response: The answers to this question were given very cautiously. Most of the respondents felt that bifurcation is beneficial because of the grants that the centre would be allocating to the divided state and the tax exemptions as well as special packages. Even other respondents who opined other options such as real estate boom and better governance as primary reasons also said that grants from centre was other beneficial reason. The main reason they felt like that was because the problem of bifurcation started as central government was not able to tackle the situation in a proper way. Most of the people from Telangana opined that better governance as the most beneficial reason. These responses were cut across different educational backgrounds. One of the respondents from Coastal Andhra answered that “What is left in Andhra if Hyderabad is given to Telangana? All the institutions we built are there and we are left with none! Central government should spend a lot of money to build all those institutions now if they want two separate states”
Table 4.2: Educational status * How do you think bifurcation is beneficial to AP? Cross tabulation
How do you think bifurcation is beneficial to AP?
Total
Real Estate Boom
Grants from centre
Better Governance
others
Don’t know
Educational status
<=Matriculation
3
5
3
0
0
11
Intermediate
9
12
5
3
0
29
Bachelors Degree
7
12
17
0
3
39
Masters And above
5
8
5
0
2
20
Illiterate
0
1
0
0
0
1
Total
24
38
30
3
5
100
Questions 4 to 7 are more informative in nature to know the perception of respondents on the way bifurcation has been happening and its effects on other parts of country, sources of information for the people. These were mostly answered in terms of a YES or NO. Very less number of respondents actually gave a descriptive answer for these questions. For the question 4, on the respondents satisfaction with the way government is going ahead with the bifurcation process and creation of new capital, majority (76) of the respondents irrespective of their educational status and region which they belong answered that they were not satisfied. In the below table you can see Highest number of respondents told that they were not satisfied. Another sixteen of them answered that they don’t know as they felt they do not exactly know the bifurcation process, so they couldn’t answer the question. Only a minute minority of respondents answered that they were satisfied. This shows that the even the people from Telangana are not even happy with the way things are going on in the bifurcation process.
Figure 4.6: Bar chart of cross tabulation for question 4
Question 5 and 6 were primarily was to understand the sources of information on the bifurcation process. The responses given to this question are to be clubbed together actually to understand the process of information dissemination on the whole process. The following tables given below shows that 78 of respondents get their information though news papers. But when asked about if they have learnt about any official report only a mere two percent of them said that a report existed in the form of Srikrishna committee report. Responses to question 6 shows that 89 respondents answered that government did not issue any report on the process. The people who said that government report existed were referring to the Srikrishna committee report which can be considered only partially an official report to this process. In addition not even one of them went through the original report; they only know the summary as interpreted by newspapers. For the question 7, majority of respondents, 84 of them said that it would spur the demands of new states in India. Most of them opined that If Telangana could be achieved by protest and agitations then definitely any state can be divided, if the people of the respective states wanted so and can arrange for group protests.
Source of Information
Percent
Newspaper
78.0
TV Discussion
20.0
Government reports
2.0
Total
100.0
Response
Percent
Yes
10.0
No
89.0
Do don’t know
1.0
Total
100.0
Question 5: Sources of Information Question 6: Did Govt. give any report?
Questions on new capital city:
The questions on the capital city are logically connected to the questions on the bifurcation process and thus builds on the understanding set by the previous answers. Questions 8 seek to answer the opinions of people about the capital city. Nine of the respondents from Rayalaseema and ten from Coastal Andhra opined that Hyderabad should be the capital even after the division of state which was not at all accepted by the Telangana respondents. Nearly all of the Respondents from Telangana said that Hyderabad cannot be a common capital and they would against it, if necessary. One of the respondents from Telangana said that “Hyderabad is completely in Telangana region. How can Andhra have Hyderabad as capital after division?”
Table 4.3: Region which you belong to * Do you think Hyderabad should be common capital for AP, even if it is divided? Cross tabulation
Do you think Hyderabad should be common capital for AP, even if it is divided?
Total
Yes
No
Don’t know
Region which you belong to
Rayalaseema
9
11
10
30
Telangana
1
25
4
30
Telangana(Hyderabad)
2
5
3
10
Coastal Andhra
10
11
9
30
Total
22
52
26
100
Responses for the questions 9, 13 and 15 are to be seen together as many of the respondents said that building of a new capital is beneficial in the sense that either Central government would be funding it or they would lend money to build through various channels. “Investments in Public sector units, software hubs, industries, educational institutions by the centre would in turn lead to employment of people”, this was the dominant opinion of many of the respondents. While 71 percent of the respondent’s opinion was that capital city would be constructed by the central government and thus it is beneficial, they also considered the fact that it would lead to greater deficits in the Budgetary and planning process. As the table clearly depicts there is not one thing that is expected out of a new capital city but the respondents are expecting various things in different proportions. The answers to this question 15, was only their primary expectation which they thought are most important for other investments to follow.
Table 4.4: Occupation * What are your primary expectations from the new capital city? Cross tabulation
Occupation
What are your primary expectations from the new capital city?
Total
Employment
Investments
industries
New Institutions
Others
Don’t know
Private Employee
9
3
5
3
2
4
26
Government Employee
3
5
6
6
1
5
26
Business
1
5
2
5
5
2
20
Student
0
2
4
0
1
1
8
Others
6
6
4
2
1
1
20
Total
19
21
21
16
10
13
100
One interesting case is the response to the question number 14, where 98 percent of the respondents said that they do not have any idea about how much money it took to build capital cities previously. They do not have any idea on this, but they have thought about this at one point or other during the process of bifurcation. Only two respondents said that they never even thought about this question. The majority opinion was that there is no official report or statistics which can talk about this. Most of the respondents are expecting the government to come up with a report on what place is best suitable for capital city, how the government plans to build it, time and amounts of money it would take to build a new capital and all related issues to be dealt and placed in public domain.
Table 4.5: Do you have any idea on how much money it took to build capital cities when states were divided previously?
Frequency
Percent
Valid Percent
Cumulative Percent
Valid
No
98
98.0
98.0
98.0
Dont know
2
2.0
2.0
100.0
Total
100
100.0
100.0
From this perspective if we look at question 10, 11, 12 the quantitative answers would not matter as the answers are random answers by the respondents which they personally think but of which they are not sure. For example responses to question 10 would show that the respondents from the places interviewed wanted their own city as capital city as they would be benefitted. They are not aware of what is required for a capital city but are only happy to expect that their city would be selected.
Figure 4.7 Bar chart of Cross tabulation for question 10
From the bar chart above, we can see that Coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema people wanted their own cities to be the capital. Only in Telangana, people wanted Ongole and Kurnool to be capital as they thought these places are best suited based on the discussions they saw on television. Regarding the questions on time and money required to build a new capital, the initial comment of each and every respondent was that they do not know. When told to make a guess by giving the options, many have estimated it would be more than 5 years and costs more than 5 lakh crore. Analysis on this data was not done because of the respondent’s lack of awareness on these issues and random answers they have chosen.
4.3 Synthesis and Summary of the Data
Summarizing the views of respondents, will give us two themes by which they have answered the questions. One is regarding the state bifurcation and other is regarding the creation of new capital city, its impact on our economy. Majority of the respondents from three regions felt that the state should be divided as it has become an emotional issue now and it is directly affecting the development of the state. Also, majority of them think that the state is being divided only for electoral purposes to gain voter share in the coming elections but half of respondents from Telangana opine that backwardness is a major cause of division of AP. There is varied opinion on how this division will be beneficial to AP as nearly equal percentage of people hose to say that the state might benefit through real estate boom, grants from centre and better governance together.
Ninety percent of the respondents were not happy with the government not conducting any research or publishing a report on creation of new capital city. Very few of the respondents were referring to the Srikrishna Committee report considering that it sheds light on the prospects of bifurcation process. Nearly all the respondents formed their opinion not based on any official reports but by varied opinion by news paper articles and television discussions. Again, ninety percent of respondents from the three regions were not satisfied with the way government is moving ahead with the bifurcation process. They want an official research to be done and put up in public domain for discussion and then select a future course of action based on facts but not emotions. Also, seventy percent of the respondents felt that this division will spur the demands of state bifurcation in other parts of the country.
5. Conclusions
This chapter sets out to revisit the objective of this research and research questions, summaries and evaluates the findings resulting in conclusions and recommendations at the end. Recommendations for future course of action based on the empirical findings will be discussed in this chapter. Additionally two sections contribution to knowledge and self reflection are included. The section on contribution to knowledge will project on how this research has furthered informed debate on the topic discussed. Self reflection will focus on how this dissertation has become a learning process for the researcher and his experiences.
The overall aim of this research is to study and analyse the impact of bifurcation on the psyche of people and awareness of people on the creation of new capital city in a bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. This study also tries to understand the impact of bifurcation on the Indian economy in general and the economy of two states in particular due to excessive spending of money on establishing a new capital without doing a cost benefit analysis. Within the larger context of bifurcation of state and new capital city creation, the objectives of this research are to answer the following research questions:
1. What are the sources of information on the process of creation of new capital city?
2. What is the impact of transferring of funds (by centre) for the creation of a new capital city on the developmental process of the country?
3. What is the level of awareness of people, their ideas and views about the way of creation of new capital and state bifurcation?
4. As a result of the above research questions, recommendations on educating people about capital creation and state bifurcation will be formulated.
5.1 Research Questions, Evaluation of Findings and Conclusions
This section will deal about the research questions in individual, will answer the questions based on the data analysis and findings from the previous chapter and give its conclusions question wise.
Research Question 1: What are the sources of information on the process of creation of new capital city?
The findings from the empirical data show that the main sources of information for people are through newspapers and television discussions. Very few of them were referring to government report and that too only one report (Srikrishna committee). Media is a very powerful platform for dissemination of information, yet in practice, it would be very difficult to verify the information that is presented in the public domain by the media. Most of the media houses and newspapers in India are substantially owned by big corporate houses. There is every chance that the information can be misleading or not truly represented in spirits. Also letting people decide their choices based on random writings and discussions by television channels, government should educate people to form their views based on informed choices and facts.
The fact that there is no single official document that captures how previous capital cities were formed and that there is no official report on the future course of action on a divided state shows that there is lack of vision on behalf of government. There is a lack of communication from government and poses a confused picture on how it is moving ahead with the process of bifurcation.
Research Question 2: What is the impact of transferring of funds (by centre) for the creation of a new capital city on the developmental process of the country?
From the research we can say that there is no study done on the impact on the economy apart from politicizing the issue. There has been a lot of bad blood developed between Telangana and Andhra people due to the turn of events in the last three years in the state. Majority of people are expecting central government to fund the building of new cities, to bring in fresh investments, set up industries and build new educational institutions. Central government has granted special status for Andhra for few years and new IIM, IIT and AIIMS in Andhra Region since most of the educational institutions are in Telangana. This has become controversial as Telangana is asking for more institutions. The whole process has become competitive. Even if you grant in both these parts, then what about the other backward regions in the country?
For example, consider National Institute of Design (NID) that was supposed to be set up in Hyderabad. Since the construction hasn’t started, now the government intends to shift it to coastal Andhra. This gives rise to competitive politics in every sphere of governance. Instead of strategic interest and needs now lobbying and emotions are taking precedence. Hyderabad is a part of global economy now and if both Telangana and Andhra compete in this way it will be a losing situation for both the states. Eventually, both of them would be lobbying to get the investments onto their side and in between there is every chance of a investments redirecting to another place.
If special status, packages, funds start from central government because of division of state, then it would set a precedent for other parts of the country to fight for separate states. Considering that the government does not have a vision of how to build future cities, leaving apart capital city, it would lead to random spending of money which wouldn’t help the nation in any way. Even the capital cities in other cities would start asking for more funds to develop their infrastructure. This again will lead to competitive politics. (Now Nitish kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar is questioning why they cannot be considered for special package) How much amount of money can any government spend on these building capitals instead of spending on the development of people? Any informed citizen about Indian economy would say that such a situation is unsustainable and disastrous for us. Money either has to be spent taking from welfare schemes or by increasing deficits which will again have its repercussions in future.
Research Question 3: What is the level of awareness of people, their ideas and views about the way of creation of new capital and state bifurcation?
The lesson learnt from this research is that people are politically educated. They are interested to know about the developments regarding the bifurcation process. But, they are completely unaware of how much money it takes to build new capital cites. They are not aware of the facts about the time and money it took to construct capital cities like Raipur, Dehradun and Ranchi which were made capital cities a decade ago. They are caught completely unaware of any future course of action by the government or the situation of economy in their state. Their expectations from a new capital city are very high in terms of investments, industries, educational institutions, employment and many more.
Every prosperous place in both the regions of Andhra and Rayalaseema are contending to be capital cities. Actually, such an exercise of deciding on the capital city should precede the division of state. Or else, it becomes a conflicting issue in the perception of people. The way in which the whole process was taken up by the government and responses given to the people were very unsatisfactory to people. They felt that this issue of bifurcation should have been dealt in much better ways without involving protest agitations and protests.
5.2 Recommendations
One of the Objectives of this research is to propose recommendations on educating people about capital creation and state bifurcation. Two types of recommendations are proposed in this research. One is the recommendations specific to evidence presented in this study and the second suggestions for future research. This research concludes that when governments make decide to divide the states, due regard for democratic process has to be given and there is every need to show people why division is required and how they are going to manage the bifurcation process. In future procedures are to be placed to ensure people will be made aware in the process of capital city creation and how government is going to manage economy meeting the demands of a new capital and a new state.
The government should establish an official platform where citizens are informed of course of action by government from time to time. A survey of all places that have a potential to be capital should be done, pros and cons of the places should be placed in the public domain. This would lead to public discussions based on facts. This would lead to better governance and thereby people being satisfied with the process of division of state. A well thought out and visionary plan should be initiated and implemented in other backward regions so that other regions will not start demanding for separate states for development.
5.3 Contribution to Knowledge
The review of literature made it clear that there is acute lack of research done on the creation of new capital cities in India. This study has tried to address that lack of research and tried to ask lot of questions that require further in depth studies. Firstly, it tries to prove the point as the process of democracy deepens in the country, authoritative decisions should be taken by informing the stakeholders sufficiently, in this case the people should know about the possible logical future course of action by the government. Knowledge derived from this study can be used to further informed debate on the process of division of state. The empirical research done is also unique, it tried to carry out a study on the awareness of people on a burning issue that effects their daily lives including surrounding issues of division of state.
This research offers valuable insight into the views of people from three different regions of Andhra Pradesh who are the stake holders in division of AP. The themes addressed, in their collectivity, is important in regarding the people’s views on the bifurcation process, sources of information, creation of new capital city and requirements for it offers good understanding of the perceptions of people. The specific recommendations given at the end of the research encapsulates what needs to be done in terms of raising the awareness of people. To date, the work produced by other researchers has concentrated on taking stands for and against smaller states. This research on the other hand, differs in the sense that it concentrates more on the awareness of people on this division process and also considers a overall impact of division on the economy. The importance of this work is that it helps in the process of governing the country in a more informed way. By understanding the people’s perceptions on important issues and how they are informed regarding such issues, better public policies can be designed which people can accept without much resistance.
5.4 Self Reflection
This research started after a brief discussion with research guide about the daily turn of events in Andhra Pradesh. A vague research proposal was submitted to the research guide who was fine-tuned by him and research topic was finalised. A wide range of emotions was experienced during the field work because this was the first experience of data collection and that is also on a sensitive topic among different regions of Andhra Pradesh. Sometimes the researcher is deeply engrossed in his work that he fails to see obvious facts and findings. That is why we need to be in contact the guide regularly and take suggestions from him.
The research work should not be assumed that it would go uninterrupted. Planning should be done for contingencies. Questionnaire as part of this research had to be changed twice before after meeting the respondents and their views were sought again after finalizing the questionnaire. There was excitement that the research was helping to understand the viewpoints of various people. The researcher had sense of frustration when he realised that there was no literature available, and much more disillusioned when even senior civil servants responded that there was no document available which helps in this research. Then there was satisfaction that this work is part of original research which not many have attempted before. There was a sense of relief and joy while writing the concluding chapter and looking at the way the research has turned out to be.
Bibliography/References
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Begari, Jagan(2009), Separate Telangana Movement in India: Democratic Versus Territorial, Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Law and Society Association, Grand Hyatt, Denver, Colorado.
Chakravarthy, N. (2009). My Telugu roots: Telangana state demand, a bhasmasura wish. Blingbrook, IL: Nalamotu Chakravarthy.
Galab, S.,E.Revathi,and Prudhvikar Reddy(2009) , “Farmers’ Suicides and Unfolding Agrarian Crisis in Andhra Pradesh”, in D.Narasimha Reddy and Srijit Mishra (Ed.), Agrarian Crisis in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Gentleman’s agreement, 1956, retrieved 01/02/2014 05:30 pm from
http://www.aponline.gov.in/quick%20links/departments/general%20administration/rti%20act/ga-sr-41b/gentlemen%20agreement.doc
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http://media2.intoday.in/indiatoday/Srikrishna-Report-d2011010502a.pdf
Nag, K. (2011). Battleground Telangana: chronicle of an agitation. Noida: Harper Collins Publishers India.
Rao, C. (2010). Regional disparities, smaller states and statehood for Telangana. New Delhi: Academic Foundation.
Rao, C.H.H.(2010).Regional Disparities, Smaller States and Statehood for Telangana, Academic Foundation, New Delhi.
Rao, Gangadhar (2008), Hyderabad and the Bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, Economic & Political Weekly, Vol - XLVIII No. 42, October
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Appendix A: Sample Questionnaire
Name
Age
Age in Years
Sex
1. Male
2. Female
Educational status
(1) <=Matriculation
(2) Intermediate
(3) Bachelor’s degree
(4) Masters and above
(5) illiterate
Region which you belong to
1. Rayalaseema
2. Telangana
3. Telangana(Hyderabad)
4. Coastal Andhra
Caste/ Category
SC......................................... 1
ST......................................... 2
OBC/SBC...............................3
General.................................4
Others…….............................5
Occupation
1. Private Employee
2. Government Employee
3. Business
4. Student
5. Others
State Bifurcation:
1. Do you think the state should be divided?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
2. What do you think is major cause for the division of AP?
Political/economical/ backwardness/others/ don’t Know
3. How do you think Bifurcation is beneficial to AP?
Real Estate Boom/ Grants from Centre/ Better governance/ others/ Don’t Know
4. Are you satisfied with the way government is going ahead with the bifurcation process and creation of new capital?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
5. What is your primary source of information on the Bifurcation process?
Newspapers/ TV discussions/ Government reports/ others/ Don’t Know
6. Did the government give any report on the bifurcation process and building a new capital city?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
7. Do you think AP state bifurcation will add fuel and spur the demands of bifurcation in other parts of the country?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
Creation of New capital:
8. Do you think Hyderabad should be common capital for AP, even if it is divided?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
9. Government is putting up a search committee for capital city; do you think building a new capital city is beneficial?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
10. What Place do you think is appropriate to build a new capital city?
Guntur-Vijayawada/Kurnool/Ongole/Visakhapatnam/Tirupathi/others/ Don’t Know
11. How much time do you think it will take to build a new capital city?
0-3 years/ 3-5 years/ 5-10 years/ more than 10 years/ Don’t Know
12. How much money do you think is required to build a new capital in AP?
<1L cr / 1-5 L cr/ >5 L cr / Don’t Know
13. Where do you think most of the money will come to build a new capital city?
Centre/State/ Debts from various sources/Others/Don’t Know
14. Do you have any idea on how much money it took to build capital cities when states were divided previously?
YES/ NO/ Don’t Know
15. What are your primary expectations from the new capital city?
Employment/ Investments / Industries/ New institutions / others/ Don’t Know
Appendix B: Sample Answered Questionnaire
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