The creation of two new states of Telugu speaking people, which has been quite a painful process, does provide a great opportunity to conceive alternative development which comes once in a while in history. The city of Hyderabad was built by a romantic ruler for five lakh people. It went beyond his imagination and now the pressure of an ever increasing population on infrastructure is so evident that it cannot take any more pressure.
The new capital of Andhra can learn from this experience and see that development and institutions are evenly spread. Administrative institutions, given the modern technology, can be coordinated from any spot. The High Court need not be in the capital. One city should not be the sole centre of industrialisation.
New educational institutions, the state is likely to have, can be evenly distributed in at least ten cities to take care of the special needs of the two backward regions of North Andhra and Rayalaseema. The institutions within the city should not be concentrated at one place causing traffic jams. As far as schools are concerned, one can go for common schools through neighbourhood schools where no child will need to travel for more than a kilometre. Fifteen to 20 publicly funded schools of first rate can be created. The demands made in Lok Sabha, and more particularly in Rajya Sabha, unfortunately did not include access to quality schools.
Another democratic exercise one can undertake is to involve the people of capital city and the entire region for idea generation and suggestions. This will generate a huge cultural and political resource in terms of a sense of belonging. For instance, Delhi metro is literally owned by the people, who maintain its cleanliness and take friends and relatives to show it with a sense of pride. Once people develop a sense of belonging, they passionately participate in the construction of a new capital.
The fate of the capital is finally going to be decided by the political class. This is the time that this class can dream of something totally new. The first CM will have the rarest opportunity to go down in the history as the builder of a new capital and a new state, if he or she does his or her job with utmost commitment and integrity. In an eventuality when the political elite stop dreaming and acting upon those dreams, be it in Telangana or Andhra, in pursuit of reckless accumulation of vulgar wealth, this write-up may sound utopian. No great city or regime ever came into being without some utopian ruler.
