Hyderabad, September 13: In politics, promises are made to be broken. But sometimes they are made to be repeated, again and again. The promise of Rs 2,000 Crore Special Package for the development of Old City of Hyderabad is the perfect example of how the politicians take advantage of poor public memory.
Addressing the 15th meeting of the National Integration Council at New Delhi last Saturday, the Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy made some impressive claims. “We have initiated a number of measures intended to ensure communal harmony including the development of the Old city area of Hyderabad with an outlay of Rs 2,000 Crore, introduction of computers and English education in Madarsas, measures to preserve Arabic archives, and support for construction of a new Haj building near Shamshabad airport,” he said.
With these claims the Chief Minister must have impressed all the participants including the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. However, except for the Chief Minister the other participants were not aware that Rs 2,000 Cr Special Package was a six-year-old announcement. It was on October 12th, 2006 that the then Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy announced a Rs 2,000 Crore development package during his visit to the Old City. YSR announced that the package would include underground drainage and sewerage network, 8,000 houses for poor, parks and round-the-clock drinking water supply.
YSR had then announced that the development of the Old City by providing good amenities would be completed in the next four to five years. Underground drainage and sewerage system would be completed with a cost of Rs 800 Crore in five years. Another Rs 100-crore scheme for supplying drinking water would be operational in two years and Rs 120 Crore would be spent for development of drains.
However, instead of giving a progress report on the implementation of the promises that were made by his predecessor, even after six years, the present Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy has been repeating same the promise at various forums.
During his visit to the Old City on June 6th this year, Kiran Kumar Reddy vowed to develop the Old City at par with posh areas like Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills. He announced that the state government had sanctioned Rs 2,000 crore worth works, including Rs 1,046 crore for providing infrastructure facilities in 2006. He claimed that Rs 600 crore has been spent on the beautification of the Old City. However, on that particular day (June 6th, 2011), he inaugurated facilities worth Rs 55 crore.
Therefore, now the question is where the Rs 2,000 crore Special Package has gone? On an average, various departments including the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (HMWS&SB) spends nearly Rs 200 crore on various works in the Old City from the revenues that they collect as property tax and other services. Such spending in no way could not be classified as Special Package. There were no out of turn allocations and except for the laying of foundation stones, several promises have remained mere proposals.
Further, what is so ‘Special’ about spending Rs 2,000 crore for a region (Old City) with a population of nearly four million people when compared to the State’s annual budget of over Rs One Lakh Crore. However, since public memory is very short and the common man gets impressed with the figures like Rs 2,000 Crore, the Chief Minister and other politicians are bound to make and repeat such promises.
——Agencies