State Reorganisation - Union's Commitment - Status Report

Introduction
Status Report - Union’s Commitment to Andhra Pradesh
geographically distant from the State capital
agitated for a separate State. In Andhra
Pradesh, the minority region comprising the
capital and enjoying a higher per capita income
demanded division, and consequently
Telangana State has been formed.
T
he Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation
Act (APRA), 2014 resulted in
division of the erstwhile Andhra
Pradesh State with effect from 02 June 2014.
While several new States were formed since
1950, the division of Andhra Pradesh was in
many ways unique and unprecedented.
First, in all earlier cases, division of existing
States and formation of new States was on the
basis of either linguistic reorganisation or the
consent of the State Legislature in the form of
a resolution seeking partition. But in the case
of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the State was
divided by a law of Parliament without a
resolution of the State Legislature seeking
partition.
Second, in all other cases of division of a State
after linguistic reorganisation, a minority region
with lower per capita income and
Third, in earlier cases of division of a State,
the majority region had a major city (usually the
Capital City) as an economic hub which is the
centre of industrialization and job creation, as
well as significant contributor to government
revenues. The region away from the major city
sought division voluntarily, and majority region
retained the big city with all its economic
advantages. In case of Andhra Pradesh, the
major metropolis of Hyderabad, for obvious
geographic reasons, became part of the newly
formed Telangana State; consequently the
Successor State of Andhra Pradesh comprising
of 58.32% of the population lost the
advantages of economic growth, job creation
and revenue mobilization offered by a large
metropolis.
Fourth, over the decades, skewed
development policies led to neglect of regions
away from the Capital City in terms of
infrastructure. In addition, most institutions of
higher education, specialized tertiary
healthcare facilities, almost all institutions and
establishments of the Union government and
most public sector investments of the Union and
State governments are located in Hyderabad
- 11 -