Dr. Parakala Prabhakar is a well-known commentator on various issues and an economist. At present he is the communications advisor to the CM of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu and holds a cabinet rank in the government. The MyIndMakers team spoke to him about the performance of the Chandrababu Naidu government and the various challenges that they're facing.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandra Babu Naidu during his previous stint had worked on something similar to Jal Yukt Shivir scheme of the then Maharashtra government. The objective was to build/restore many small ponds and tanks to improve the water table. Is that project going to restart again?

It is aimed at recharging the ground water. The chief minister is now very concerned about the depleting groundwater levels. In some areas like Rayalseema more than 1500 feet you have to go to get water. Our government's aim now is to restart the watershed management and such initiatives that were there between 1996 and 2004 so that the ground water levels will be somewhere between 8 meters to 10 meters. Anything which is more that in order to get groundwater, that kind of situation should be avoided. That is the aim of the chief minister. We are working towards that. Second thing which is related to this is afforestation. Now the forest cover in Andhra Pradesh is somewhere around 22 to 23 %. We want to increase that to 45 %. We are working on that. In fact in some areas massive afforestation, social forestry etc. have already started. We are taking the help of various nongovernmental organizations including ‘green hands movement’ that was launched by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev in Tamil Nadu. They also want to come in and help the government of Andhra Pradesh. But you see, the Chief Minister is very clear that it cannot be a government program alone. It is not desirable that some government officers go and plant trees. It should be completely people's movement, social movement. Government can encourage but if the people are not involved there might be huge plantation drive taken up by the government but nobody will look after those plants and they will all die. So these are two initiatives which are mutually related. Water and water shed management and bringing up the groundwater levels and recharging them etc. and then hand in hand with that is to go for greening of our state.

Students were the most affected due to the state bifurcation. Many top Universities and colleges are now in Telangana. How does Andhra Pradesh address this issue in the immediate term?

We have universities- top ones like IIT'S IIM’s, agricultural universities etc. that government of India has sanctioned. <most of them have started operations in Andhra Pradesh, some of them are like the NIT, where admissions have started, IIM’s want to start admissions very soon. IIIT admissions are also starting. We are insisting that even with the lack of proper infrastructure let's start the operations in some kind of make shift campuses, that is the reason we had insisted they start their admissions and classes even with meagre infrastructure. The other thing is we are on the job of inviting big and established universities for example Vellore institute of Technology for coming and setting up their campus. BITS is interested in setting up their campus in Andhra Pradesh. Amity University is showing a lot of interest, We are getting lot of reputed organizations in private sector also to come in. We are talking to them. We do not want indiscriminate invitations to be given. We are very cautious that we should carefully avoid the fly by night kind of small players. We want to see their track record, their infrastructure, their strength in various domains and department. We will see that immediately most of the central institutions that are sanctioned by the union government open up their campuses and start classes. This is the immediate thing. Second thing is bring in reputed organizations and institutions, Third thing we have to concentrate on strengthening existing universities in our state.

There is a need for Enhanced Training and Equipment of the state police force to be overhauled completely. Without adequate facilities and pay grades, law enforcement becomes prone to low quality intakes. Is the New Government able to afford these acquisitions?

We are aware of this challenge and this is made a little easy because the finance commission from time to time- every 5 years, finance commissions also take into account some of the challenges faced by the state governments and they do allot funds for the modernization of police force, law enforcement agencies, sometimes for the judiciary as well. The 14^th finance commission also like the 13^th commission gives us some help along with the other states in order to modernize our police force. In fact as you pointed out this is a big challenge not only just the training but the kind of equipment police force need to have, especially with nature of crime that the police force is now faced with, it is completely changed. There is a lot of white collar crime, finance related crime, cyber related crime, and it is not just like the old times where they would deal with murders, chain snatching, and pick pocketing kind of thing. Police now need to be very tech savvy. They should have the modern equipment etc. so that needs a lot of infusion of capital. Finance Commission does give some incentives and does give some help in that.

In land pooling for the new capital region, even though there is an agreement with farmers for over 10,000 acres, the actual development contract seems to have been awarded for 2000 acres so far. Why is the most important issue of development, contracts, and the least visible? 

You got your figures wrong here. It is now 33000 acres. Consent is given, and farmers have come forward, so there is no challenge. It is about 600 to 700 acres and their owners are holding for various reasons, political reasons etc. They went to the high court saying that they would stand to gain much more under land acquisition act rather that land pooling system that was introduced by the state government and the chief minister. We had told the court that look we are open to offering them under the land acquisition act also. In other words we called their bluff. They just wanted to stall these initiatives of the government. When we said that we are prepared to even go for land acquisition if they are so interested then they back tracked. Therefore is now no more a challenge. It is now 33000 acres which is now in the kitty of the government. we have overcome all the environmental impediments. Some people have gone with a litigation to high court. After that some have gone to national green tribunal. National green tribunal is also now satisfied, and we have got the clearances. Ministry of Environment of union government has also cleared. No more challenges on that front

At the leadership level both CM Chandra Babu Naidu and PM Narendra Modi seem to be working well together. However, there seems to be too much criticism of the BJP by the TDP mid-level cadres especially with respect to the special status. Is there a feeling that the BJP is a better opposition to the TDP than YSRCP or Congress in the AP assembly? 

The situation in AP assembly is very unique and unprecedented. This is the first time there are only three political parties in AP state assembly and two of them are friendly parties. This one must keep in mind. The chemistry between CM and PM is very good and this was explicitly stated by the PM when he came to lay the foundation for Amaravati. He said in his public speech that chemistry between us is very good and we are working very well together. BJP is a political party and TDP is a political party, BJP leadership would like to have their own existence and identity and there is bound to be a little bit of tension at constituency level and district level but as of now the situation is pretty much under control and both the parties are working well together. There might be some individual leaders in BJP and TDP who might be speaking out of turn now and then but that is not a big challenge for us.

There are obviously many lessons to be learnt from the events and reasons leading to the state bifurcation. Could you tell us how the new AP government can avoid a similar situation from let's say Uttara Andhra or Rayalseema?

This is a very good question. We all need to be very sensitive to this. There are several factors that have resulted in the agitation and state bifurcation, There are economic reasons, cultural reasons, political reasons, matters of perception etc. and you know during the agitation we have come out with during the agitation we have come out with publications that refuted the entire range of arguments that the people who wanted division from Telangana had put forward, it got into political momentum and it was no more amenable to reasoning, arguments, facts and data and statistics. We need to avoid that kind of situation in Andhra Pradesh. Culturally, economically, all the regions should feel that entire state belongs to us, and we belong to that state. Development model has to be clearly decentralized development model, and that is the reason why institutions are spread over. Even the industrial initiatives are also much decentralized. IT is mostly across the Vizag area, In Ananthapur and Kurnool you have manufacturing, electronics and hardware. In Kakinada again we have hardware. Vizag and other places again are manufacturing hubs. So we are working on a much decentralized model of development. What we need also to address is the cultural, language and other aspects. 

On Polavaram, the funding may be from center but work completion is a state responsibility. What are the hurdles and what is the ETA for completion?

Followers and the funding may be from the center but work completion is a state responsibility. Look the funding is from the union government. In fact the union government is also in charge of implementing the project. But then, our argument is that if you want to do it, do it and we have no objection. But then you do not have the machinery or the administrative structure in the state to complete the project. If you put everything in place and do it on a fast track there is no problem. Otherwise give us the money, supervise and we will complete it. We want to complete it by 2018-2019.We have been waiting for this kind of thing for a long time. We want Godavari water not to go to waste in to the Bay of Bengal because 3000 TMC of water is going to the sea and is wasted. I do not know if you know the math here, a TMC of water can irrigate 10,000 acres of paddy. Paddy is a very water intensive crop. Then you can imagine, 10000 times 3000, how much potential water we are wasting. So even if we can stop about 100 or 200 TMC of water, the state of Andhra Pradesh can feed the entire country. We are alive to this and we want to complete this as soon as possible in the next 3 -1/2 to 4 years and we have no problems. Center is quite responsive to the needs of Andhra Pradesh. That is the reason why the Union Cabinet even before deciding on the summoning of Lok Sabha, (the first cabinet meeting normally after the elections goes for summoning of the Lok Sabha, but once it takes place they cannot issue an ordinance) Therefore the first cabinet meeting the government issued an ordinance transferring the 7 mandals to AP. The mandals that are likely to be submerged because of Polavaram. Then they had another meeting later to summon the Lok Sabha. This means that the Union government is very alive to the issue and to the needs of the government of Andhra Pradesh so far as Polavaram is concerned. We will be able to complete it. The estimates are now being revised. Meanwhile we had also addressed that we did not want to wait till 3-4 years so we wanted to transfer some water from Godavari basin to Krishna Basin. That is the rationale for Pattiseema project (lift irrigation). Once that is transferred, what we do is that the augmentation that comes from the Godavari water in to Krishna basin could be diverted. 80-100 TMCs can be diverted to Rayalseema. Rayalseema will begin to have assured water because of this. In the next 2-3 years before Polavaram completes, you can see a huge transformation in agriculture potential of Rayalseema.

It is indeed pleasantly surprising the infant state of Andhra Pradesh jump to the 2nd position in the world bank rankings with respect to ease of doing business. How did AP manage to get ahead in such a short period of time? 

That is actually one of the major victories of our government and the Chief Minister because immediately after we took over, the CM started concentrating on power sector and attracting investments and making our state friendly for investors and entrepreneurs in both domestic as well as foreign investments. We had also signed an MOU with Lee Kuan Yu institute of public policy in Singapore on this ease of doing business. We have rationalized our procedures, we have appointed escort officers and have deemed approval clauses put into when somebody applies. Instead of him getting all the clearances, the clause that the CM has put in is if the government doesn't clear it or say that it is not possible for whatever reason in 21 days then it will be deemed to have been approved and he or she can go ahead with starting the enterprise. That is the kind of regime that we have put in. Power situation is very good now and we are able to give power connections immediately. There's plenty of water, we have a good land bank. There is a lot of skilled manpower in our state. So all these factors have contributed. The most important thing is that instead of going to 108 sections in different departments and getting clearances, the entrepreneur is now asked to put in his application online and it is the responsibility of the dept. of industries to take the paper and get all the clearances and come back to the entrepreneur within 21 days. This is the kind of initiative the CM has taken. Wherever we went, Japan, Singapore, China and whoever is interested to come in and invest in our state from these countries, we have established country specific desks which makes it easier. We have now a very proactive industries department which takes care of this. That is the reason why in about 15 months we were able to achieve this and although it is second after Gujarat, the difference between Gujarat and AP is only about 1 percentage point. By next year we hope that we would not only equal Gujarat but also surpass it.

There seems to be all round appreciation by several sections of the Telugu Hindu community on the steps ushered in by CM Naidu to improve the state of dilapidated temples, increasing facilities for priests and with respect to the functioning of the endowments department etc. Is Mr. Naidu now trying to ‘saffronize’ the state or does he genuinely see the need for Hindu institutions to be strengthened? 

It’s not just the Hindu temples, CM Naidu even in his earlier tenure has considered temples and spirituality as a very important in a person’s life. They give stress free life, and they give a lot of solace to people. Either a dargah in Kadapa or a temple in Srisailam, Simhachalam etc. they are our heritage and we also see a huge tourism potential in this. They also have a lot of assets and they should also be brought in so that they should properly utilized for the temples. These temples can be centers of art, dance, publications, poetry and more. If they are restored and with the help of the funds of the big temples, the small temples can also be restored. They can also play an important role in the social and economic life of the state. That is the main issue. It is not 'saffronization' but it is giving due importance to the part played by spirituality and religion in our society's life.

Image Credits: http://www.in.com/parakala-prabhakar/profile-1441.html

Government of Andhra Pradesh