Why Visakhapatnam Be made Executive Capital City?

Prof K.S.Chalam, Founder President, Uttarandhra Adhyayana Vedika

The current debate on the issue of a proposal to establish an executive
capital at Visakhapatnam reminds us about the subversion and conspiracy made
by leaders and people of some regions in the Madras Presidency towards the
Telugu speaking people of Visakhapatnam and Ganjam districts in 1930. When the
Oriya speaking people approached the British for a separate state and sent their
representative to Round Table Conference demanding parts of Visakhapatnam
and Ganjam as Orissa, no one from the Andhra Mahasabha objected to it except
one or two leaders from Rayalaseema. In fact they could not convene the
Mahasabha for some time due to this lapse. As a result we have lost the present
five to six districts in Orissa which were part of Visakhapatnam and Ganjam
including Munchingput, Jeypore, Parlakimidi etc. Gidugu Rammurthy the doyen of
spoken Telugu protested about it. Now interestingly the leaders of some coastal
districts who had been accused by most of the underdeveloped regions even in
the combined state including Telangana, Rayalaseema and Uttarandhra for high
jacking development for their self and social class development are again
speaking in the same voice even after we lost Telangana. It really pains to listen to
our own Telugu speaking people saying that Visakhapatnam is on the dead-end
near Orissa. It is ridiculous that People of Ichapuram, Parvathipuram even now
travel 200-300 Kms to reach Visakhapatnam. They had travelled 13000 Kms when
Kurnool was Capital for 3 years and 900 kms for 60 years to go to Hyderabad,
while Krishna, Guntur and other coastal districts had the privilege of remaining
within 400 kms of a capital city. They are well protected in the middle of the state
without any border or water disputes and drawing the water resources of
Uttarandhra including Godavari waters. Leaders of Uttarandhra including late
Gouthu Latchanna tolerated this saying they are also our Telugu biddas. Perhaps
our friends do not know Late Gouthu Latchanna came from Baruva around 300
kms from Visakhapatnam. The sacrifices made by Uttarandhra in terms of political
leadership, resources like using government lands in Vizag, water etc for the
development of Hyderabad and the state are known to every Telugu speaking
people. Unfortunately Krishna and Guntur districts do not have sufficient natural
resources except fertile soil and depend upon upstream waters of Krishna and
Godavari from other states. Even now this is the position, not to speak about
industrial development etc. After the state formation in 1956 most of the
contractors and business men came from coastal region to the city of
Visakhapatnam and the city provided the spring board for their growth. It started
from 1971 and continued unabated even now in exploiting surplus lands of the
region. Several people do not know that we had a Zamindari system while they
have ryotwari. After Abolition of Zamindari in 1948, the lands remained with
government. The successive governments and the ruling classes made use of the
situation and grabbed lands and transferred the resources to Hyderabad. Some of
them lost due to Telangana formation. We pity them as they did not invest in
Vizag. Even after Reorganisation of the state in 2014, our friends did not realize
the folly of their development model like that of Gujarat model and grabbed as
per media reports in 2017-18 government lands worth about a lakh of crores.
Where did this money go, Amaravati? Hyderabad? Chennai? Bangalore ? or
Gurgaon? The locals of Uttarandhra being socially and economically poor and
backward did not get any benefit from development projects may be one or two
agents of the ruling castes an exception. Not a single worthwhile project from the
state government was initiated in Uttarandhra and that entire industrial base in
the city is due to public sector development of government of India due to its
suitable location. Even this public sector did not benefit the locals as R cards were
bought by settlers and coastal people got benefitted making the locals to out-
migrate. Around 15 lakh people of the region migrated to different places
including Hyderabad as laborers, if some have remained here due to other
reasons they were made laborers in their own lands after the settlers grabbed it.
If a committee is appointed to find out the land transfers during the last 4
decades, truth will come out and help restrain the so called insider trading by
settlers.

Given the history of Visakhapatnam being a place named after Visakha Varman in
500AD through his Korashanda inscription (Inscriptions of Orissa) published
around 1918 by Godavarthi Ramdas, and the collaborative evidence that a
Sabaraditya of Kalinga was killed by the Brahminical rulers, Thurpugangas is made
available now to show the history of the city. The 3rd century BC Buddhist and
mediaeval Vaishnava temples etc ,of the city has a long history. In the modern
period the first war of independence started in Visakhapatnam when 3 sepoys of
East India Company were killed in 1780 in Vizagpatam by the local agents of
Hyder Ali ( Sher Mohammed Khan, KrishnaGajapathi ?). It is only to inform our
Telugu brethren that this is part of our composite Telugu history and culture and
Visakhapatnam shall remain a Telugu city for centuries to come to be a proud
place for all Telugus in the world. The City of Visakhapatnam is the only beautiful
city on the East in between Chennai and Kolkatta that has the potential to be a
world class port city in the years to come.

We have on behalf of the Uttarandhra Adhyana Vedika have submitted a

memorandum to ‘on the location of New Capital for A.P (Sivaramakrishnan)
‘during July 2014 indicating the potential benefits of locating it in Visakhapatnam.
We have noted that the city has 17.3 lakh populations while Guntur and
Vijayawada had only 16.5 lakh in 2011. Visakhapatnam at that time was placed at
number 10 in rank in terms of GDP at $ 26 billion and provided data on the
available infrastructure and other facilities. It was our solemn anticipation that
the city would bring development to the hinter land of Uttarandhra as the
population of the region constitute 90 per cent S.C, S.T,OBC & minorities. It is
strange that people in coastal areas talk about developed Vizag city with high per
capita income. It is true that the average including Gajywaka region comes to Rs
2.6 lakhs, but other areas including Bhimili, Elamanmchili are lower than this.
Interestingly the lowest per capita income of Araku in the district, Kurupam
,Ichapuram in the region are the lowest even lower than that of Anantpur and
Prakasam. Therefore, we want that development package for the region including
the executive capital be implemented not to speak about having a capital, but to
get the spread effects of it for the development of the poor and underdeveloped
in the region. We wish at the same time that the government would resolve the
issues of the farmers in Amaravati as they are also our Telugu brethren.