Articles by C Ramachandraiah

Amaravati, the planned new capital of Andhra Pradesh, is to be set up in a highly fertile, multi-cropped area in the Guntur-Krishna belt where the water table is just 15 to 20 feet below the surface. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has been aggressively pursuing land pooling through a series of not-too-friendly measures to acquire land for the capital which will be located in a low- to medium-risk flood area. Where the Singapore consultancy's master plan for the new city, Amaravati, falters is in not visualising the need to accommodate low-income residents and the informal sector in the new capital, and in its exaggerated projections of employment generation in the information technology sector.

Over 450 people were reported to have died of "shock" following the death of Andhra Pradesh chief minister, Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. While the high-pitched media coverage may have contributed to some of these deaths, it also appears likely that eager Congress workers gave money to poor people asking them to claim that the natural deaths of members of their respective families were due to "shock" at the death of YSR. This was a cynical move to pressurise the Congress leadership to make his son, Jaganmohan Reddy, the chief minister.

The article ‘Mythologies, Metro Rail Systems and Future Urban Transport’ by Dinesh Mohan (January 26) is timely and one hopes that some good sense prevails among Indian policymakers on urban transport.

Frequent encroachments on lakebeds, an inadequate drainage system and lack of storm water drains have made Hyderabad vulnerable to floods even with limited rainfall. A lackadaisical attitude of the authorities and corruption at the local level have contributed to the city's woes. Reclamation of catchments and dried up tanks seem to be the solution if the city is to be saved from a Mumbai-like disaster.

The IT industry in Andhra Pradesh has several advantages with a large pool of scientific manpower and a proactive state government. Software exports have grown impressively in the last decade and IT-enabled services are likely to play a significant role in the creation of employment opportunities. The basic challenges lie in improving the social sectors such as education, health, etc, and developing the infrastructure. If these problems are not tackled on a priority basis, the fast-growing IT sector will leave the majority of the population behind, leading to a more polarised society.