Once Indira Gandhi’s Constituency, Medak Is Now A Neglected, Peripheral Area
Read through the ads for houses on rent in Hyderabad and chances are that among other things, you will find a promise of Manjeera water for drinking purposes. Strangely, though the water comes all the way to the capital of Andhra Pradesh from the river Manjeera, residents of Sangareddy town, which is close to the river, do not get to drink this quality assured stuff. Such is the irony of Medak, a Lok Sabha constituency that was once represented by Indira Gandhi, a fact that the Congress government does not tire of boasting.
Though the limits of Medak district and its Lok Sabha seat lies adjacent to Greater Hyderabad, till date it has remained the backyard of Hyderabad, a place where the garbage of the city is dumped. “If you want to die in this place you don’t have to commit suicide, the industrial pollution will anyway kill you,” says Srinivas, an educated farmer standing on the main road of Sangareddy, the headquarters of Medak district not more than 25 km from Hyderabad. He is referring to all the pollutants generated by Patancheru’s drug units - not too far from the town. “The drug industry came to this place after Indira Gandhi became MP from Medak, but Patancheru is among the most polluted places in the world,” says Ranga who works in the BHEL factory in Ramachandrapuram.
There is also a lot of local anger against the municipal administration of Sangareddy, though the city is barely 60,000 strong. “Absolute and total corruption rules the roost in this municipality,” complain residents.
Yet Sangareddy is better off when compared to Medak, a town of 1.2 lakh, that gives the district its name. “There is a tahsildar’s office here, but there is no tahsildar. In any case there is no staff. So how can development happen here?” asks 60-year-old Shankar. “Lots of corruption here. Rates are fixed for everything,” laments Lakshman Yadav, a former sarpanch.”YS Rajasekhara Reddy may be a good guy, but his partymen are all thugs. Fertilisers are not available. There is a 100-bed government hospital but there are not enough doctors,” Shankar adds. Power is supplied for no more than six hours a day and water supply is through borewells. “There is lot of migration from here to Hyderabad. People go to work as coolies and in factories. There are no jobs here,” laments Madanna.
But haven’t people of Medak, barely 100 km away from Hyderabad, gained from the real estate boom? Yes, concede residents but add that most of the gains are notional because there are no buyers for their properties. Denizens of Sangareddy lament that the real estate boom in their area is far more modest than on the other side of Hyderabad - in the region around Shamshabad.
But the real estate boom has really helped Chegunta, a small town 55 km from Bowenpally. Modern flats are coming up and a two-bedroom apartment goes for about Rs 4000 per month. “Property that cost Rs 30,000 two years ago is now quoted at Rs 7 lakh,” says Sajeel, a restaurant owner.
The reason is that the government has given licences for 400 new factories in a bid to disperse industry out of Hyderabad. Real estate values have also shot up at another end of Medak, in Gajwel, that is accessible through the Shamirpet end of Hyderabad.
The Rajasekhara Reddy government may have emphasised irrigation but a journey through the rural areas of the constituency shows no sign of water reaching anywhere. Nature has also been harsh with the district: much of its rocky and barren dry land has had little rainfall. Lush green fields can be seen only in patches close to lakes. Across the district only rice and sunflower is grown, though near Gajwel there is cotton cultivation and there is an agriculture market yard.
Travelling down the road from Chegunta to Gajwel, we come across nomads travelling in groups with their sheep.“We have no land, there is no irrigation. We travel from place to place within this district,” says the group leader, evoking images of dry Rajasthan.
There is a strong undercurrent of the Telangana in Medak. Here, people may not be willing to die to get their Telangana, but they do believe that a new smaller state will bring the administration closer to the people, something worth voting for.
In such a case, the TDP-TRS combine (Mahakutami) candidate stands a strong chance of getting elected. Either K Chandrasekhara Rao or Vijayashanti are expected to be the Mahakutumi candidate. Rao’s former colleague A Narendra, who is the sitting MP, will possibly contest on the Congress symbol.
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