FLUOROSIS - DEAF EAR

Vattipalli (Nalgonda): A meeting with any of the fluorosis victims of Nalgonda district is certain to leave even the strongest of men in tears. Twisted legs, rubbery arms, enlarged heads, concave eyes, corroded teeth in all nightmarish bodies that make one’s stomach heave. But then, it’s just another day for “you and me” in paradise as these people continue living in hell.
Is Andhra Pradesh really the shining example of development as proclaimed by Y S Rajasekhara Reddy garu? “What shine is he talking about when our lives have been crippled forever. Not only YSR, successive rulers have all been apathetic towards the fluoride-affected victims,” says Panuganti Tirupathamma, slowly crawling out of her one-room dingy house in this small village of Nalgonda district.
All of 28 years, she looks frail. Suffering from fluorosis a debilitating disease that affects the limbs, stunts body growth and impairs movement completely since she was five, Tirupathamma entered the fray from Munugodu Assembly segment as an independent but her nomination was rejected as she could not state her property assets in the affidavit (as if she has any!). She gets the disabled pension of Rs 500, 35 kg of rice under the Antyodaya card and makes Rs 30-50 a day running an STD booth.
With death staring her in the face constantly, Tirupathamma wanted to fight for the rights of the fluorosis victims who number a shocking 7.5 lakh in this area alone. “My idea was to contest from Nalgonda LS seat as I want to raise my voice in support of the victims but couldn’t afford the Rs 10,000 deposit which I have to furnish to election authorities,” she says.
She had contested the ZPTC poll in 2006 against a Congress leader but lost. But Tirupathamma considers it as a moral victory. “I won in the sense that I provoked the indifferent officials to accept the magnitude of the problem,” she claims.
At the last count, over 7.5 lakh people (2.5 lakh children among them) in 850 villages of the drought-prone district are affected by fluorosis part natural and part man-made disaster. While the permissible limit of fluoride content in water as per WHO norms is 0.5-1 ppm, in many villages it hovers between 1 and 16 ppm (in Batlapalli village, it was an astonishing 28 ppm in the 90s).
During election time, most candidates make the mandatory whistle-stop tour of these villages but the victims are pretty sick of them. “Our hellish lives make for great news reports/photos but no political party has done anything to improve our lives,” hits out Fluorosis Vimukti Porata Samithi convenor Kanchukatla Subhash, who has been spearheading the movement for the last nine years against the governments’ apathy.
Amsala Swamy (27) barely manages to run the STD booth in his Shivannagudem village because of his physical constraints. “If they (ruling party leaders) have children like us, then they will understand the trauma,” says Swamy’s father Satyanarayana, a barber, as he buttons his son’s shirt.
The bare-chested Yanamala Devaiah (55), a farmer of Munnurugudem, is furious. His son has disowned him, he gets 4 kg of rice under the Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme and Rs 200 as monthly pension (that again is because the village sarpanch wrote down his age as 60). Walking with the support of a stick, Devaiah, who already looks like he is in his 80s, says: “I won’t vote this time. We are crippled here but the netas are filling their coffers.”
While some villagers buy water (Rs 8 for a 10-litre pitcher) and store it as if their life depends on it, others pedal or walk their way for 4 to 5 kms to fetch safe drinking water. “Since our village doesn’t get Krishna water, I travel 8 kms,” Appanna, cycling his way to his Namapuram village, says. It is ironical that 22 villages of Marriguda mandal don’t get Krishna water even though they are in striking distance of Nagarjuna Sagar pipeline.
“What crime did we commit that we deserve this treatment from the powers that be? We are only asking for safe drinking water,” says an ex-teacher Subbaraju of Sarrampeta village. Subbaraju has been bedridden for the last 15 years. Sources said all it needs is Rs 250 crore to get safe drinking water to all the 850 affected villages. “YSR has visited Nalgonda district 35 times in the last five years. Each time he visits, the expenditure is Rs 50-55 lakhs. Whose money is it?” bemoans Subhash.
Swamy hits the nail on the head: “Right to water is a misnomer in this part of the world even 61 years after independence.”

Comparision - Telangana – Rayalseema – Uttara Andhra

Lot of times I hear Brothers from Rayalseema and Costal wondering why people talk about the neglect in Telangana, when we see the same amount of negligence in districts like Anantapur, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram etc.

In this article I would like to express the Telanganites stand point.

The State of Andhra Pradesh was formed on November 1, 1956 by the merger of already existing two states (Andhra and Hyderabad) and hence Andhra Pradesh was a conditional state unlike other Linguistic states formed in India after the first S.R.C (states reorganization committee headed by Justice Fazal Ali).


Conditional state: why a conditional state? The reason is simple.
Andhra (coastal + Rayalseema + Uttara Andhra) was economically strong wherein people were more educated, knew lobbying at different levels, were technically good compared to Telanganites but their state exchequer of Andhra State with Kurnool as capital was in real Doldrums, unable to bear even the salaries to the employees of the state.
On the other hand due to the atrocities of Razakars, Feudal Land lords, the people of Telangana were less educated but the looted money by Nizam was later distributed among the Central Government, Hyderabad State and a small portion was given to Nizam. On the whole Telangana people were less educated, weak in Technical skills but had a strong Revenue base and the Hyderabad State that existed between 1948 and 1956 always had Surplus budget. Hyderabad state with good Natural resources (Rich Coal deposits found in Adilabad, KarimNagar, Warangal and Khammam), Largest deposits of Lime stone in the south, Good fertile lands ( in the districts of Nizamabad, Karimnagar, Medak, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda ) , Rivers Krishna & Godavari Flowing across the region was all set to make its mark in future.

Telanganites were never interested to merge with Andhra with a fear that they would be neglected and would never get their fair share in the future years to come.
Andhra Lobbyists persuaded Telanganites and made all the promises they could that would ease the process of Merger.
As the state was formed with Conditions on Hand, we would call Andhra Pradesh as a Conditional State rather than calling it as a Linguistic Telugu State(First SRC never suggested one united state for Telugu speaking People instead SRC Recommended existence of Andhra and Hyderabad as two seperate states).

The conditions were between two units or Parties at that Time:
1. Andhra (comprises of Coastal Region, Uttara Andhra Region and Rayalseema Region)
2. Hyderabad State (Today’s “Telangana”).

As these are only two parties involved in the agreement, whenever one region tries to take an undue advantage, the other region has the right to fight for the injustice meted on them. This is happening today. Telangana has to advocate for itself as on numerous occasions . Time and again agreements (Gentlemen's Agreement of 1956, Mulki Rules, 6 point formula, 8 point formula, Presedential Order or 610G.O.) were not honored nor did Telangana receive justice in spite of its rich contribution towards Andhra Pradesh today.


As the rule of the land says that locals rights should be protected while sharing the riches with others. Telangana never deceived Rayalseema or Uttara Andhra of its fair share. On the contrary, Telangana was deprived of its share in water, jobs, Educational facilities, Healthcare and social justice. Telangana contributed a lot towards Andhra Pradesh Economy but never had anything for its people. Questions were raised many times against this gross injustice and as they were paid a Deaf Ear, it had become inevitable to fight for their identity that can be achieved only through Separate Satehood.


As far as I know, Telangana is the only region which has a District(Nalgonda) wheirein 7,00,000 People are affected by Fluorsis (Legs Crippled, Hands Crippled, ) due to lack of supply of drinking Water to hundreds of villages even though Nalgonda has the largest Masonary dam in the World, Nagarjuna Sagar built on its soil.


MahabubNagar District could see River Krishna flowing 365 days in the year in its vicinity but has severe drought which drives out lakhs of people from the district every year in search of Food & shelter.


These examples are just a tip on the Iceberg and in my future articles I would discuss in detail injustice meted onto Telangana one sector at a time like Educational disparities, Healthcare disparities etc.

Need of the Hour-Telangana

Telangana has been a traditional electoral battleground, and 2009 is no exception. Before every election, public sentiment is roused with promises of transforming the backward region by separating it from Andhra Pradesh. Once the polls are over and a new government is in place, the issue is conveniently relegated to a far corner of the political agenda — until the next elections.
This cycle has been going on since 1969. Marri Channa Reddy reaped a rich political harvest by leading a violent Telangana agitation, going on to become Chief Minister twice. Other champions of Telangana have since come and gone but none has succeeded in bringing a separate State as close to reality as Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K. Chandrasekhar Rao has.
A shrewd politician, KCR, as he is known, has a single point agenda — bifurcation of the State — ever since he fell out with Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu and floated his own party in 2001. He outwitted his erstwhile mentor by joining hands with the Congress in the 2004 elections and contributed to the TDP’s rout.
The Telangana region comprises 10 districts, most of them former dominions of the Nizam of Hyderabad. It never progressed in tandem with districts on the coast where a network of dams, canals and drains contributed to prosperity, thanks to the vision of legends like Sir Arthur Cotton, M. Visveswaraya and K. L. Rao. The entrepreneurial farming class in the region did the rest, making best use of the opportunity.
The seeds of unrest in Telangana were sown in 1955 when the recommendation of the States Reorganisation Commission to retain Hyderabad as a separate State went unheeded. Telangana leaders accused the people of Andhra of colonising the region by grabbing their jobs and land and the government of not investing sufficient funds in infrastructure. The result was the ‘Jai Telangana’ movement in 1969 and a counter-agitation some three years later for a separate Andhra.
Where Channa Reddy, the rabble-rousing, mass leader of Telangana Praja Samithi (TPS) failed, KCR has succeeded. Where there was prolonged violence and discord during Dr. Reddy’s leadership, there is near consensus among political parties. KCR made a series of deft political moves to ensure that Telangana was on the top of every party’s agenda. The choice before them was to support the cause or lose out in the elections.
The BJP has promised Telangana within 100 days of coming to power at the Centre. The CPI, always a votary of ‘isalandhra’ (a united Andhra), has now pledged support to the aspirations of the Telangana people while the CPI(M), though opposed to smaller States, says it can do little if the parties want a separate State. The TDP, in a complete turnaround from the philosophy of its founder, N. T. Rama Rao, calling for unity among all Telugus, has promised Telangana if it is returned to power.
Praja Rajyam president Chiranjeevi also chose to sail with the prevailing wind by saying he would prefer ‘a peaceful parting of ways among brothers.’ In its 2004 election manifesto, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance said a decision on Telangana would be taken at an appropriate time through consultations and consensus and has constituted a sub-committee headed by Pranab Mukherjee to seek the views of political parties.
However, recently, Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy declared that his government had no objection to the formation of Telangana State in principle. The TRS has gravitated towards the TDP in a ‘grand alliance’ that includes the Left. The alliance is poised to give the Congress a tough fight in Telangana, which accounts for 119 Assembly and 17 Lok Sabha seats; the Praja Rajyam has not made much impact in this region.
In the last elections, the Congress, TRS and the Left crushed the TDP, leaving it far behind with just one Lok Sabha and 11 Assembly seats. The boot is now on the other leg as the Congress’ political friends have turned foes. Although the TRS and the TDP have squabbled over seats, the Congress may find it difficult to win even half the seats in Telangana.
Unless it wins 50-60 seats here, its chances of retaining power in Andhra Pradesh will be poor.