The Government at the Center needs to step in immediately to ensure the State of Hyderabad is not stripped of its assets, by the retreating Seemandhra exploiters. The Andhra Government seems to be going full steam on awarding contracts worth crore of rupees to Seemandhra contractors, even though the (CAG) Comptroller and Auditor Generals report advises against these. A few instances of the undue haste and patronage being shown to the Seemandhra contractor lobby in awarding contracts in the soon to be created Hyderabad state are illustrated below.
The Andhra Government has approached the World Bank for a loan of Rs.1000 crore to develop the traffic and public transportation infrastructure in Hyderabad city, the capital Hyderabad state. The World Bank is ready to give this grant and an indication to this effect was made a few days back by the bank, and the Andhra machinery is working overtime to avail of these funds. The plan that was shared with the World Bank officials includes developing an integrated traffic system for the city of Hyderabad. The utter haste shown by the Semandhra administrators in getting the project report prepared and submitted to the World Bank, shows they are working against a deadline in awarding Government contracts. Knowing full well, that in another 12 months the state of Hyderabad will be a reality and they may be transferred back to their home districts, these officials are in a hurry to milk Hyderabad of as much of its monies as is possible. Their objective seems to be, empty the coffers of Hyderabad state by awarding contracts to the Seemandhra lobby right left and center, and finally when the time comes leave the people of Hyderabad holding the remains of an economically dead state.
The other instance is the award of the Hyderabad Metro Rail, eight consortia companies have qualified to participate in financial bids, and almost 50% of these are led by the Seemandhra lobby, Lanco Infra-OHL Concessions (Spain), Essar-Leighton (Australia)-Gayatri-VNR, GMR Infra, GVK-Samsung (South Korea). These consortia have already started making noises on the unviability of the project with the existing projections, and are requesting a relaxation in the terms of Agreement. The news filtering in from the corridors of power is that the Government is seriously considering this as it wants to award the contract by the end of April. Needless to say, this contract if awarded will add to the financial burden to the Hyderabad state.
While on one hand the Government is going at rocket speed in awarding the MMTS contract, on the other hand it has no resources to spare for improving the state of the existing MMTS network, and has been sitting on a proposal to pay a trifling Rs. 22 crore to the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, for procuring the pending six rakes or trains. Needless to say, these six trains will vastly improve the current network and quality of services. A Government boasting of one lakh crore rupees budget has been unable to find such an ‘insignificant' sum for nearly a year now. This delay is because the beneficiary is the Integral Coach Factory and not a Seemandhra owned company.
Not only this, all projects which will add to the prosperity of the fatted Andhra region, but which will if completed imperil the economy of Hyderabad state, have been put on fast track and are being commissioned on a war footing, witness the Polavaram project which if completed will inundate vast stretches of fields in Khammam and spell the death knell for the Devadula (Chokka Rao) lift irrigation scheme intended to supply water to the drought prone areas of Hyderabad state.
It is imperative that we the people of Hyderabad, safe guard our interests and stop the Rosiah led Andhra Government from awarding any mega contracts in the state of Hyderabad. We the people of Hyderabad, demand that our state be spared from the rapacious acts of our captors, and demand the Government at the center to put a stop to this exploitation of our state. Let the lame duck government carry on its day to day activities, but let no policy decision or mega contract be awarded in the State of Hyderabad, till our Government takes oath shortly.
Jai Hyderabad. Jai Hind
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