HYDERABAD: Are developing areas of the state turning into crime hotspots?
Stating that the crime rate in the state has gone up by 12.93 per cent during 2017, the Director General of Police (DGP) M Mahendar Reddy said that they would expand various initiatives like SHE teams, use of technology and social networking sites that are being implemented in Hyderabad to everywhere across the state. A total 1,07,428 cognizable crimes were reported during 2017, compared to 95,124 cases registered in 2016 with an increase of 12.93 per cent.
“The crime rate slightly increased in the state after the police started registering cases by accepting complaints from the victims and public. The majority of crime was reported from Cyberabad, Rachakonda and Khammam police limits where development is rapidly expanding by setting up companies,’’ Mahendar Reddy said in an annual conference on Saturday. Talking about Maoists activities, the DGP said that at least 54 extremists were arrested and 26 extremists surrendered while 18 extremists were arrested in interstate joint operation.
Crime against women goes up
The Crime against women, crime on Scheduled Castes and Tribes including rape and harassment have gone up in the state. Similarly, the cyber crime cases have doubled in 2017.
At least 1,136 cyber crime cases were registered in 2017 when compared to 513 in 2016.
Nayeem case
The DGP said that killing of gangster Mohammed Nayeem was fair justice to the state and the people. The police are still searching for Seshanna, a close associate of Nayeem.
CID achieves 27 per cent conviction
The CID officials detected various cases including cyber crime and achieved 27 per cent conviction rate in 2017.
Student suicide, alleged moral policing kept campuses on the edge
University campuses saw student protests on various issues in 2017. Osmania University was on the boil after the suicide by a MSc Physics student, E Murali, inside hostel in university campus came to light on December 3, 2017. Students took to protests after the suicide was linked to unemployment problem in Telangana. A video also emerged of police personnel entering hostels in OU and lathi-charging the inmates, reminding people of the scenes in OU during Telangana agitation. In 2017, measures by the university authorities to force illegal occupiers of hostels on campus outside the hostels also made headlines. The university had snapped power and water supplies to some of the hostels.
University of Hyderabad witnessed protests after the administration issued suspension orders against three students for two years and against seven students for six months. The suspension orders were issued after university authorities found a girl student inside a room in the boys hostel and asked her to leave. Following this, students gathered in protest against ‘moral policing’ and allegedly one of the university officials was assaulted by the students.
However, in December 2017, following many protests by students, the university reduced punishment of seven students to six weeks while the punishment for other three remained same. Satavahana University witnessed tense moments on December 25 when students belonging to Dalit students organizations and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad clashed and even resorted to stone pelting. The issue occurred after the Dalit student leaders burnt a copy of Manusmrithi in front of the university’s gate and ABVP alleged that the students also burnt a portrait of Bharat Mata.
Fee hike issue kept education sector in a state of turmoil
The year 2017 saw many developments take place in education sector in Telangana.
Committee report on school fees
The most recent of the developments occurred at the fag end of the year. It came to light on Friday that the report made by a former Osmania University Vice Chancellor, Prof Tirupati Rao, on regulation of fees in private schools, recommended a 10 per cent annual hike in school fees.
Telugu compulsory till Intermediate
Telangana government in November said that Telugu would be made compulsory till Intermediate in the state, including in CBSE and ICSE schools.
Telangana joins national pool in NEET
It was announced in 2017 that Telangana will join the national pool of National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET).
Grading system for Intermediate students
Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) announced this year that grading system will replace the marks based system at the Intermediate level.
OU enters centenary year, but problems continue
Osmania University entered its centenary year in 2017. There were huge expectations from Telangana government that it would take initiatives to restore the past glory of the ailing university, but nothing much happened.
Pink ball worms and fake seeds add to farmers’ distress
Telangana farmers will remember 2017 as the year of the pink ball worm and spurious seeds taking a toll on their income. The year also witnessed the state government take initiatives to get fake seed sellers behind bars. Farmer distress was augmented with two weeks of unseasonal rain causing crop losses.
“I got 5 quintals of cotton out of 1 acre in 2016, I got the same quantity out of 3 acres this year. This situation is that bad,” said C Balaji cotton farmer from Nirmal district early December. “People are burning cotton here because of the pink ball worm. Ginners are not paying anything more than Rs 3,900 per quintal, overall its been a bad year,” he added. Balaji admits he was lucky to get that price with the cotton ginners, the Minimum Support Price (MSP) set for the cotton this year was Rs 4,300 but farmers sold cotton for lower prices.
In November, reports of cotton farmer suicides started pouring in along with reports of the use of spurious seeds and low-grade BG-2 cotton seed wreaking havoc on farmers. This was followed by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) stopping purchase of cotton from farmers citing poor quality and high moisture content. The same month, farmers from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh took to the streets in Delhi demanding compensation for the victims’ families.
The state agriculture department then held a meeting to weed out spurious seeds and curbing the sale of substandard seeds, but without defining how they would go about it. The issue of spurious seeds has been an impending problem for Telangana farmers. Agricultural department data suggests that the state has improved the availability of seeds to farmers. However, the state government failed to get the Telangana Farmers Redressal of Grievances (for crop loss due to the supply of defective seed) Bill, 2017 passed.
Three major state projects got nod from environmental ministry
The year 2017 saw three major projects of Telangana government falling under ‘Category A’ get Environmental Clearance (EC) from the Ministry of Environment and Forests - the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme, Yadadri thermal power project and the Manuguru thermal power project.
The Kaleshwaram lift irrigation scheme envisages to construct a barrage across River Godavari for providing 180 TMC of water for irrigation facility over 7,38,851 hectares. The total catchment area of the project is 36,35,437 hectares and it is likely to generate 1,480 lakh cubic metres of muck. Greenbelt to be developed in the barrage site of the project covering a length of 110.2 km.
Yadadri thermal power project consists of 5 units of 800 MW power generation capacity based on super critical coal based technology in Nalgonda whereas the Manuguru project consists of 4 units of 270 MW power generation capacity located in Kothagudem district. A few other projects of the Telangana government, which fall under the ‘Category B’ of Environmental Clearance, were approved by the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) in 2017. The projects include the mega textile park at Warangal, mega food park in Bhupalpally, and electronics hardware manufacturing SEZ at Maheshwaram in Ranga Reddy district.
Six sand mining proposals by Telangana government also got clearance from the SEIAA in 2017. The area to be mined is spread over 48 hectares in two projects each located at Manuguru in Khammam district, and at Bodhan and Kotagiri in Nizamabad district. 2017 also saw the public hearing for the much-touted Hyderabad Pharma City project spread over 19,333 acres across 12 villages in Ranga Reddy district as part of procedure to apply for environmental clearance to the central government.
Polluting pharma units got approval to expand production capacities
Environmental destruction due to pollution created by pharmaceutical companies in Patancheru and Jinnaram mandals of Sangareddy district is well known. However, this was no hurdle for pharmaceutical companies located in these mandals from getting Environmental Clearance (EC) from the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) of Telangana for expansion of their product mix and production capacities in 2017.
In 2017, around 12 proposals by pharmaceutical companies for expansion of their production capacities and product mix were approved for EC by the SEIAA. Of these, 4 companies are located in Jinnaram, 2 in Patancheru, 2 in Quthbullapur, 3 in Rajendranagar and 1 in Uppal. It may be mentioned here that the incidents of dying fish in Gandigudem and Gaddapotharam lakes in 2017 were due to the pollution from pharmaceutical companies located in Gaddapotharam and Kazipally industrial areas located in and around Jinnaram mandal. Patancheru was declared as a Critically Polluted Area by the Central Pollution Control Board where there is a moratorium on establishment of new industries and from Quthbullapur there are regular complaints by residents of air pollution due to pharmaceutical companies.
Pharmaceutical companies continued to mark their presence in Telangana in the year 2017 when it came to large projects as well. Of the only 14 ‘Category A’ projects proposed to come up in Telangana which received approval for Environmental Clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2017, 9 projects are from the pharmaceutical sector alone. Of the four new pharmaceutical plants that got EC for establishing new units, one each is located in Chegunta and Zaheerabad districts in Medak district, Manugur in Khammam district and Bommalaramaram in Nalgonda.
197 lives snuffed out in Telangana due to fire accidents in 2017
Data released by the Telangana State Disaster Response and Fire Services Department (TSDRFSD) on Saturday highlights the need for fastracking court cases against accused in fire accidents. As per the data, 197 lives were lost due to fire accidents in 2017 in the state, whereas in 2016, 174 lives were lost.
However, in 2017, of the 543 prosecution orders issued by fire department, 321 (60 percent) are still pending in various courts. While in 26 cases, the fire department has to file the case in court, in 70 cases, the prosecution withdrew the cases. In 110 cases, the court imposed penalty and in 16 cases, the accused either migrated or received acquittal.
C Lakshmi Prasad from TSDRFSD, while speaking to the media, said that the fire services department was trying hard in court to ensure that the maximum punishment is imposed on the guilty. He said that the fire services department in court cases usually asks the judiciary to impose fine as well as imprisonment as per the provisions of Fire Service Act, as the law does not give option of giving either or both.
Another observation from the data released by TSDRFSD is that the number of fire accidents labelled as ‘Major/Serious’ increased from 108 to 124 from 2016 to 2017. However, there was a decrease when it came to ‘Medium’ fires from 484 in 2016 to 401 in 2017. Overall property loss due to fire in 2017 was `154.83 crore which is slightly less than the `168.29 crore loss reported due to fires in 2016.
Heavy rains and poor drainage system brought city to its knees
FOR Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), year 2017 was sweet and sour. Pathetic condition of roads, inadequate storm water drains saw the city battered between July and October due to heavy rains causing hardships to the citizens of Hyderabad.Several projects such as Charminar Pedestrianisation Project, Cable Bridge Project at Durgam Cheruvu, flyovers, graveyards, Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP) and government schemes like grounding of two bedroom houses (2BHK), which were announced last year are going at a snail’s place and need immediate attention.
However, GHMC Mayor Bonthu Rammohan claims that year saw important projects grounded. He told reporters that GHMC was able to mobilise and make available about 481 acres of land for 2BHK Housing in 109 locations. So far, 41 In-situ slums (10,269 Dwelling Units) and 68 Government vacant lands have been finalised to take up a total 1,00,000 DUs. The SRDP project costing `25,000 crore is expected to give 70 percent relief in the next 10 years and give tremendous savings (25 to 30 percent) in travel costs.
Presently construction of multi level, grade separators were taken up at Kamineni, Chintalkunta, Bairamalguda, LB Nagar, Bio- Diversity, Mind Space, Ayyapa Society, Rajiv Gandi Statue Junction, Bahadurpura and cable stayed bridge a Durgam Cheruvu with a cost of `1,080 crore in two phases.For roads maintenance, 4,862 works were identified costing `1284.43 crore. In the recent-held Global Entrepreneurship Summit, GHMC took up 40 BT roads costing `26.98 crore, 24 footpath works (`9.19 crore) and 17 Lane Marking works (`3.14 crore).Under desilting works, 319 works costing `28.81 crore were sanctioned and so far 57.14 percent of the sanctioned have been desilted. Of 40 Model Markets, 28 Model Markets were completed (`14.33 crore).