Telangana is ten years old today. The state celebrates its tenth formation day today. Telangana agitation is the epitome of the struggle for self-respect and perseverance. What followed after that is remarkable.
Once Telangana is achieved, everyone thought the state will struggle due to a lack of leadership and resources. But in ten years, the state has proved everyone wrong. Every apprehension about Telangana – Power Crisis, Water problem, real-estate crash, etc was proved wrong by an able leadership.
Even though it cost a bomb initially, there are no power cuts in Telangana and the state is slowly moving towards being a self-reliant state in the power sector with new projects underway.
The water problems were addressed more effectively with lift irrigation projects. Even though they are a burden to the state exchequer, the projects (both ongoing and upcoming) largely make farming a happy place in Telangana.
The new districts combined with surplus water for agriculture, and Rythu Bandhu ushered real-estate boom and increase in land prices in Telangana districts.
In Hyderabad too, it was a different but pleasant story. The leadership that led the Telangana agitation was always seen in a confrontational mood. Many thought they would drive away the investors causing panic.
But Hyderabad in the last ten years is a success story with huge investments in infrastructure and being a hub for new companies and IT development. The lack of proper leadership in the neighboring Andhra Pradesh in the last few years is also helping to some extent.
From the stage where settlers of Hyderabad are concerned about staying here to feeling better here only, Telangana leadership did a commendable job.
There is also an attempt to usher IT and industrial growth in the remaining districts. Even though it is only baby steps, the efforts in that direction are commendable.
Along with Telangana’s growth story, there is a cultural change as well in the new state. There is a remarkable respect for Telangana festivals and culture. We no longer see a mockery of the Telangana dialect or culture in films. That is the respect achieved only because of the separate statehood and self-identity obtained because of it.
