'Decentralise growth'

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 10, 213: With Hyderabad becoming a contentious issue in division of the state, people are of an opinion that the union government should plan cluster development by creating more growth corridors.

Parting with Hyderabad, the only developed city in the entire state, has turned a sticky issue and people in Seemandhra argue that it is not fair, as they too have invested in its development.

The development should be decentralised. Growth should be scattered in different cities in Seemandhra to prevent another Hyderabad-like situation, said Uttarandhra Rakshana Vedika president S.S. Shivasankar.

BJP national executive member Kambhampati Haribabu felt that the union government should come up with growth corridors along  Visakhapatnam – Kakinada, Kakinada – Eluru, Eluru – Guntur, Ongole – Nellore – Tirupati, Anantapur – Kurnool for future development.

“All the adminstrative bodies like the legislative Assembly, Secretariat, quarters for ministers and legislators should be at one place and the High Court can be in another city or town,” he said. Secretaries of various departments can stay in the capital but offices of heads of various departments can be located at different places.

For example, the headquarters for endowment can be at Tirupati, fisheries at Kakinada, agriculture at Anantapur and ports at Visakhapatnam.

“Decentralisation should not pose any problem to smooth adminstration as many facilities like video conferencing are available,” said Haribabu.

He also suggested that the location of the new capital should be finalised in three months after bifurcation and the construction of buildings must begin forthwith. “The provision of 10-year common capital might lead to different problems,” he added.

Clear Danger: Abandoned vessel threat at Vizag Port

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 9, 2013: An unlit and abandoned cargo vessel, MT Pratibha Neera, anchored in the busy shipping lane in the approach routes of Vizag port, has turned out to be a potential threat to the safe passage of regular cargo vessels and also in a worst scenario may bring entire shipping activity at the port to a standstill.

The likelihood of the anchor chain breaking, due to severe weather conditions, is also a possibility. In a worst case scenario, it can lodge itself in the entrance to the breakwater, bringing shipping activity in the port to a complete standstill until the wreckage is
removed.

The ship belonging to Mumbai based Prathibha Shipping Company Ltd run by the kin of Maratha strongman, Sarad Pawar has arrived in the Port of Visakhapatnam in the October last year.  It is almost a year since the ship has been in the port limits of Vizag left abandoned.

The ship seems to be now unseaworthy on many counts. Last year another ship belonging to the same shipping firm, MT Prathibha Cauvery stoked a controversy off Chennai coast while it ran aground and its crew members jumped for safety when the low intensity Cyclone Nilam hit Tamil Nadu coast. Prathibha Neera has embroiled in a legal battlebetween the shipping firm and a Singapore based supplier on payment ofdues and is stranded at Vizag port.

And it’s a moment for the Vizagites to heave a sigh of relief as the recent severe cyclone Phailin spared Andhra Pradesh and so Prathibha Neera averting a major mishap to occur.

Bombay High Court in June this year, ordered the arrest of the cargo vessel anchored at Vizag port. And as per the order, the ship won’t get clearance from the port authority to move until further orders.

Prathibha Neera has come to Vizag port on Oct 29, 2012 to take an approximate 20,000 tonne of Light Sulphur High Speed Diesel Oil from a local refinery. Ever since the case taken a legal turn, the ship was said to be abandoned by the owners.

Presently coast is experiencing a spell of cyclones and storms in the area. Due to the age of the ship and the prevailing weather conditions, it’s a strong possibility that the vessels anchors may drag or in a worse case, break leaving this big mass of metal to float around uncontrolled, says Capt Sebastian Ravi Fernandes, Master Mariner who has been in the sailing profession for nearly twenty years on various types of tankers.

“Should this happen, other installations in the area - breakwaters, submarines, naval ships, merchant ships in the area, etc are all put through dangerous situation,”  he adds.

More than 10 vessels from various countries reach Vizag port in a day carrying different cargo.  Prathibha Neera is a double hull oil tanker built in 1986 at USSR.

“To a layman, this could be compared to a situation if you have a boulder lying unlit on a busy highway. Until such an obstruction is removed, the likelihood of an accident is more or less definite and imminent. In 2002, a vessel Tricolor sank in the English Channel after colliding with the Kariba. The Tricolor sank in the busy shipping lane. In the days that followed before the wreck was removed three ships collided with the sunken wreck. Given the present conditions, the likelihood of an incident occurring are definite and imminent. The authorities need to act before a situation that is already bad does not deteriorate,” Ravi added.

If the ships sink in a busy shipping route, the wreck would lie below the water surface, reducing the amount of safe water below the keel for ships to enter and leave port. In such a scenario, wreck removal costs would have to be incurred to render the shipping lanes safe. Wreck removal costs often run to the tune of millions.

“The owners seem to be running the vessel on a skeletal staff and that’s the reason why it is not event lit. On humanitarian grounds we are providing safe drinking water to the crew. Acting on their requests we have sent a tug to reposition the ship during the cyclone Phailin warnings,” said a senior official of the traffic department of
Vizag Port.

Ganta – Balaraju rivalry reaches flash point, puts officials to trouble

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 8, 2008: Rivalry between two state cabinet ministers hailing from Vizag,  Ganta Srinivasa Rao and P Balaraju seems was exposed  again here on Thursday with both of them holding review meetings with district officials  separately on the same subject.

Ports and infrastructure minister, Ganta Srinivasa Rao held a review meeting with the  district collector, Solomon Arokia Raj, GVMC commissioner, MV Satyanarayana along with heads of various other departments on the proposed Rachabanda programme scheduled to begin on Nov 11, at the conference hall of the government circuit house. The meeting lasted for close to two hours and arrangements for the programme were discussed elaborately.

Soon as Rao concluded the meeting and left the place, tribal welfare minister P  Balaraju held a meeting with the same set of officials at the same place on the  same issue. Officials were forced to discuss the same programme twice. “It was so tiring to discuss and repeat the same issues twice that too without any gap. They should have buried their differences and could have held the review meeting jointly,” felt a district official.

Interestingly, Balarju waited in a suite until Ganta Srinivasa Rao held the review  meeting and entered the conference hall only after Rao left. Rao and Balaraju are known  arch rivals in the district politics and never see eye to eye. It is rare to see then together at any programme. Balaraju had also skipped the chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s  proghrammes in the district in the last month twice where Rao was seen actively taking part.

While Balaraju said he would abide by the party central leadership’s decision on state bifurcation, Ganta Srininivasa Rao had openly found fault with the decision and actively took part in Samaikyandhra agitation related programmes.

The proposed ODI match between India and West Indies on Nov 24 has also exposed the rift and rivalry between the two ministers. While Ganta Srinivasa Rao opposed conducting the match in the backdrop of popular mood prevailing in this region over AP bifurcation, Balaraju welcomed the proposal.

Rao, on Thursday appealed the BCCI and ACC officials to shift the match venue. But  Balaraju on Thursday made a strong pitch to hold the match and also assured security to  hold it. “It’s a prestigious match and we should all feel proud that Vizag is hosting  such an international match. It will enhance the image of the city in the international  arena,” said Balaraju after the review meeting on Rachabanda.

IT R&D campus for Vizag

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 8, 2013: Amid uncertainty triggered by the union government’s decision to divide Andhra Pradesh there is a positive news.

As a breather, the Society for Applied Microwave Electronic Engineering and Research (SAMEER), which comes under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, has decided to set up its campus in Vizag with an initial investment of Rs 80 crore.

SAMEER was set up as an autonomous R&D laboratory at Mumbai, under the then department of electronics, Government of India, with a broad mandate to undertake R&D work in the areas of microwave engineering and electromagnetic engineering technology.

SAMEER has facilities in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. It has decided to set up its second facility in south India at Vizag. The R&D facility will also provide employment for technicians and engineers.

According to informed sources in the state Information Technology and Communications (IT&C), the Government of India enterprise had applied to the APIIC to provide 50 acres of land recently to set up its campus.

The SAMEER Vizag campus is likely to come up on the lines of its Chennai facility, which serves Indian and global industries in applied research and development, design consultancy, testing and training with the state-of-the-art infrastructure.

“Over 50 per cent of the work and business for this company comes from the defence  industry and navy here. We are confident that this will create more employment and provide a big boost for new units in the proposed ITIR  and electronic manufacturing clusters (EMC) at Vizag. We hope SAMEER investments will lead to more investments in our city, especially after the sanction of 24/7 operations of our airport and an international convention and science centre,” said RITPA and Vizag Development Council (VDC) vice-president O. Naresh Kumar.

Split woes: Polavaram, a sticky issue

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 6, 2013: It’s not just Hyderabad that is a contentious issue in bifurcation of the state.  There is another thorny issue- multi purpose Polavaram irrigation project, which may prove to be a ‘headache’ for the union government in the division process.

If the apprehensions of the Seemandhra people on completion of Polavaram project are to be addressed, Bhadhrachalam revenue division that also houses famous lord Rama’s temple should also be included in residuary state post bifurcation.

At present, Bhadhrachalam is in the limits of Khammam district, which is in Telangana.

The Congress Working Committee (CWC) resolution on creation of Telangana basing on which the union cabinet had begun the bifurcation process, has assured that the Polavaram will be declared as a national project and that it would be completely funded by it.

However apprehensions are being raised in Seemandhra region that the Telangana state government, after the state bifurcation, may create hurdles to the completion of the multi crore project which can provide irrigation water to 7.2 lakh acres in upland areas of coastal Andhra, as the villages that may face possible submergence are located in the Telangana region.

Polavaram project is already mired in controversies with governments of Odisha, Chattisgrah and Maharashtra approaching appropriate legal entities to stall the project showing many reasons and it is felt another state government Telangana would add to the list of woes. To assuage these apprehensions a demand is growing in this part of Andhra Pradesh that those villages that may face submergence be included in the residuary state.

Polavaram project is also vital to provide water to Rayalaseema through inter-basin transfer of 45 TMC, to generate 960 MW hydropower, to stabilize and secure the present Godavari and Krishna delta systems, considered the rice bowl of the nation, besides controlling the periodic flood devastation in coastal areas.  The project is also as important as Bhakra-Nangal and Nagarjuna Sagar, the two mighty irrigation projects in the country in the view of interlinking of river waters across the country.

As per the estimates of irrigation experts and the state government Polavaram project submerges 276 villages with an average population  of   642 per village. Of the 276 villages 204 are in the present Khammam district of Telangana.  Out of these 204 villages 121 are in Bhadrachalam Revenue Division and the remaining in Palvancha division.  Bhadhrachalam revenue division was part of East Godavari district in Seemandhra region until 1959.

“We have this apprehension that the future government of Telangana State would not allow Polavaram project because of the submergence. The new Telangana government may create hurdles in land acquisition and rehabilitation to halt the progress of the construction of the project as these are the state subjects.  This concern of Seemandhra people can be addressed only by transferring the land under submergence of the reservoir and land earmarked for rehabilitation of the displaced to the new Andhra Pradesh state,” pointed BJP national executive member, Kambhampati Haribabu, who was the member of Task Force on Interlinking of Rivers.

The Task Force on interlinking project was set up during NDA rule in December, 2002 on the recommendation of the apex court.  However the task force was cancelled when the UPA came to power in 2004.

It would be interesting to see if the Telangana votaries would be ready to forego Bhadhrachalam revenue division which also houses famous lord Rama’s temple.

AP bifurcation: Samaikyandhra stir fizzles out; Vizagites send suggestions to GoM on Seemandhra devpt

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 5, 2013:  With the Samaikyandhra stir fizzling out, various sections seems to be coming to terms and accepting that the state bifurcation is imminent. Many  have started preparing and  drawing plans for the development of  Seemandhra region.

In a significant development, the CII members and  representatives of Vizag Development Council (VDC) held a brainstorming session on Tuesday on the representation to be forwarded to GoM set up by the Union government to oversee the bifurcation process. They prepared a charter of demands for the development of Seemandhra region.

This comes close on the heels of a closed door meeting called by Union ministers D.  Purandheswari and M.M. Pallamraju with the select industrialists in the city a few days ago seeking opinions and suggestions to develop residuary state.

The two union ministers were very vocal in support of the decision taken by their party led UPA government on division of Andhra Pradesh. Both were first among the Seemandhra leaders to talk about plans on development of Seemandhra region after bifurcation and need to approach GoM.

“The union government should take every possible step to protect the interests of the people of Andhra and Rayalaseema who are worried on account of division of state. Besides granting special package, which is yet to be announced, the government must clear some of the pending demands of Andhra and Rayalaseema which are sectorally divided into Fund based and Non Fund Based expectations from the Government in our report to the GoM.  Regional Development Council which includes the representatives of trade and commerce bodies should be formed with appropriately to expedite development and enforce Single Window clearances,” said VDC and Rushikonda IT Park Association (RITPA), vice president, O Naresh Kumar.

With November  5  deadline for sending suggestions to the GoM, VDC  along with CII  sent their proposals through email.

Their demands included allocation of power from Central Grid until proposed new units meet the requirement on date to domestic, industry and agriculture 24X7, adequate gas from KG basin should be allocated to Andhra Pradesh Power Plants and Industries on priority, incentives and special tax concessions such as VAT, excise, central sales tax, Income tax and service tax etc. for new units as well as the ones being relocated to this region, creation of Free Trade zone at Vizag and Kakinada with concessions and facilities like in Singapore or Dubai, facilitate early sanction of ITIR in Vizag including National Manufacturing Investment zone among others.

Meanwhile a Vizag based NGO Chaitanya Sravanthi, working for women empowerment also sent a report to GoM on Tuesday demanding special, exclusive package for north Andhra.

“The Congress led UPA Government is going ahead with its proposal without taking concern and fears of people in the region. It is very important to win confidence of people to go ahead with it, without allaying their fears and doubts, the proposal will receive stiff résistance from people. As people are not ready to believe the political parties any assurance or package will not be of much use. Hence it is important to involve all stake-holders and take their views before finalizing the GOM report .This will go a long way in winning the trust of people, and for this the government should be sincere and should not give priority to political consideration,” said  Chaitanya  Sravathi, chair person, Shireen Rehman.

She added that if the UPA succeeds in finalizing  the bifurcation it should consider an exclusive development package for north Andhra, which is the most back wards region not only in the state but also in the Country.

To give a fillip to development in North Andhra, Visakhapatnam, Which has all infrastructure facilities, should be made capital a part from locating a high court bench in this region, said that report of Chaitanya Sravanthi. 

Dhanteras: Jewellers disappointed

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam, Nov 1, 2013: Dhanteras, considered an auspicious day before Diwali, failed to create any buzz among gold buyers. It’s a popular practice to buy gold on Dhanteras day and use it while doing puja to the goddess of wealth Lakshmi.

Gold merchants who were going through a tough time since some months due to lack of business after the Samaikyandhra agitation and floods, had pinned hopes on Dhanteras thinking that the public would come forward and buy gold. Gold merchants said they had just average business and nothing extraordinary. They had been witnessing a downtrend in gold sales ever since rates started going up.

Gold merchants also felt that the government’s decision to levy 11 per cent taxes have been discouraging buyers. And adding to their woes are disturbances in the form of agitations, strikes which had weakened business since the last three months.

“We are probably facing the worst crisis ever. After 2007-08 we started witnessing a downward trend. We are not doing even 10 per cent of the business we had in the 2007-08 period. And we hope that at least during occasions like Dhanteras and Akshaya Thritiya we will get a boost. But this year both occasions disappointed us,” said Visakhapatnam Gold and Silver Jewellery Merchants’ Welfare Association secretary, N.V. Achyuta Ramaiah.

There are around 600 small, medium and big gold jewellery showrooms in Vizag including in the outskirts of Gajuwaka, Gopalapatnam and Pendurthy. The Kurupam market in the One Town area itself has around 200 gold shops. They generally have a turnover of Rs 70 crore in a year.

“As of now we have done just an average business there is no any unusual jump in our business or mad rush on the occasion of Dhanteras. We are still waiting as there is also little confusion about Dhanteras whether it is to be observed on Friday or Saturday,” said Sunil Francis of famous jewelery chain Joy Alukkas.