Mrs Gandhi on the campaign trail Mrs Gandhi on the campaign trail

The people of Medak are slowly learning that election promises are not always honoured. Four years ago when they voted Mrs Gandhi to power they assumed that before long they would be reaping the rewards. But the grand plans that were drawn up for the district have never materialised and Medak's story of development is a long dismal list of targets that have been missed by a mile.

This was not the way it was supposed to have been. Soon after the elections in 1980 a horde of industrialists and politicians eager to win Mrs Gandhi's favour descended on Medak. An ambitious five-year plan - which no other district in the state has - was drawn up.

It was to cost Rs 176 crore, Medak, it appeared, was about to be turned into an industrial powerhouse where poverty would be kept at arm's length. And since former chief minister T. Anjiah, former deputy chief minister C. Jagannatha Rao and two other former state ministers - major industries minister M. Baga Reddy and revenue minister A. Madan Mohan - also represented assembly seats in Medak district it seemed quite certain that nothing could possibly go wrong.

Little Interest: But go wrong it did. Right from the start it was obvious that Mrs Gandhi had neither the time nor the inclination to nurse her constituency. Since January 1980 she made only five trips to Medak and has spent barely more than 24 hours in the district altogether.

Lambadas displaying land deeds Lambadas displaying land deeds

She has stayed away for more than 13 months at a stretch and two of her trips were made during her whirlwind campaign for the assembly elections. And after her political opponent N.T. Rama Rao swept to power in the state she is said to have lost whatever little interest she ever had in the constituency.

Rama Rao's victory was, however not the only reason for Mrs Gandhi's lack of interest in Medak. Long before the former film star blazed his way across the political scene, Medak was languishing. An industrial boom of sorts did take place but it was not what was planned.

All except three of the 50 industries in Medak are clustered together in Patencheru taluk, where they can claim the 15 per cent subsidy for setting up in an industrially backward area and still be a relaxed 45-minute drive from Hyderabad along the national highway to Bombay.

About 20 of the industries in Patencheru had reached Medak long before Mrs Gandhi since it had obvious advantages. Says K.V.K. Raju, chief of the Nagarjuna group of industries, which has Rs 37 crore invested in Medak: "Our steel company was started before Mrs Gandhi decided to contest from Medak. The difference after her election was to morale. Infrastructure like power, water and land was available faster than before."

Around 75 other firms are said to have plans to move to Medak but they are all apparently biding their time about their moves. Each is delaying for its own reasons but one major disincentive is the Central Government rule that any area which has more than Rs 30 crore investment loses the tax benefits of being a backward area.

The foundation stone at Sangareddy: Forsaken land The foundation stone at Sangareddy: Forsaken land

The only big unit which is likely to come up in Medak is a government ordnance factory which is slated to start production around two years from now, and which will employ nearly 10,000 people. So far, all the industries which have headed to Medak have only provided 8,000 jobs altogether. And even the bulk of these have gone to outsiders with specialised skills.

No Monitoring: Along with the industries were supposed to come the banks. And indeed a number of new branches have opened during the last few years. In December 1980 there were 48 banks in the district and now there are 111. Even a small bank like the Manjira Grameena Bank, a regional rural bank started for the district in April 1983, has 23 branches.

The catch is that the banks do not really know where their money is going. If the Rs 90 crore loaned out by the State Bank of India was being used properly, Medak should have been knee-deep in developmental activity.

Bank officers and administrators admit that they are not really sure where the money is being spent. Says one helplessly: "The lack of monitoring is the weakness of rural banking in which advances are tied up with government-sponsored programmes."

While industry and banks have at least been coming into Medak in a trickle, a number of other projects that were proposed in 1980 have turned out to be complete non-starters. At the time the Congress(I) promised that a sugar factory would be set up in the district.

Also promised were a medical college, a sugar technology institute and an inland fisheries centre. The railway line that was supposed to pass through Sangareddy was also never started.

Apart from all these there were promises to strengthen the infrastructure of the district. Like everything else the reality is far different from the much-touted plans. Parts of Medak are still parched, arid stretches without water.

An acute shortage of even subterranean water adds to the difficulties. But about Rs 3.05 lakh set aside for drinking water wells was allowed to lapse in 1982-83. Only 40 of the 132 planned protected water supply schemes to have been commissioned by March 1985 have been completed so far.

M. Venkata Reddy, one of the three Telugu Desam legislators from the district, grouses that in his assembly constituency, Narayankhed, camels still have to be pushed into service to transport drinking water. Says Venkata Reddy: "All that Mrs Gandhi gave the district was propaganda."

Fudged Figures: Despite the gran claims made for it, rural electrification in the district is also something of a hoax. Tellingly, its most vociferous critic is Congress(I) legislator Baga Reddy. Over 200 of the 320 villages are said to be electrified.

On paper the effort looks creditable but the actual truth is that frequently the electricity board fudges its figures by taking power connections right up to the outskirts of a village so that it is technically able to claim that the village is electrified.

A more revealing figure of the true state of things is that only 455 Harijan homes have been lit up in the last few years. Besides this, power is often erratic as transformers are overloaded and burn out with monotonous regularity. Says Baga Reddy: "Power connections are given only if the electricity board staff are bribed. Only 160 connections were given in my taluk last year compared to 600 in 1982."

In every other field the story is the same:

School enrolment is up from 1.93 lakh to 2.8 lakh, but schools have been opened in only nine of the 118 centres without schools that were identified in 1980. The Indira Priyadarshini College for Women works in shifts and has to share accommodation with a girls'school and a junior college;

Social forestry programmes are way off target. Only 42 km of roads are tree-lined against the target of 50 km every year;

Only 48 villages have new bus services started after 1980. Of the other villages, 291 out of 1,229 villages do not have a bus service for the simple reason that there are no motorable roads

The fisheries development programme has also been a non-starter.





Party Rivalry: Mrs Gandhi and her lieutenants would, of course, like to hold Rama Rao responsible for the neglect of the district. Baga Reddy, who is a veteran legislator of the district, is especially critical of the Government's decision to stop the Rs 9 crore drinking water supply scheme.

Zaheerabad Panchayat Samiti President Manik Reddy, who is a close associate of Baga Reddy, says: "Indiramma has given the sanctions. It is for the state Government to implement the plans." Former chief minister Anjiah adds bitingly: "Rama Rao has given the state a development holiday."

That is hardly the whole truth. In actual fact, Mrs Gandhi paid scant attention to her constituency even when her party ruled the state. Many ambitious schemes were never started. Others were started but little effort was made to see that they were completed.

A typical example is the story of her handing out land deeds to Lambada tribals of the region. After much fanfare and an elaborate distribution ceremony, no land was ever handed over to the tribals, and government officials insist that the property cannot be handed over since it belongs to the Government. Says Vittal, one of the holders of the now worthless deeds: "We continue to work on other people's farms. Indiramma's gift is a dream.

The foundation-stones that are scattered throughout the district are testimony to what might have been in Medak. Altogether there are said to be 47 projects which never started. In Daulatabad there is the foundation-stone for the proposed bus station.

And opposite the Medak collectorate there is the foundation-stone for the home of the executive director of the Andhra Pradesh Essential Commodities Corporation. But while Congress(I) legislators were only too keen to lay foundation-stones, they never did anything else while they were in power.

Political Priorities: The rivalry between the Telugu Desam and the Congress(I) does surface from time to time. In Zaheerabad, a 30-bed hospital was completed more than three months ago but is yet to open, as legislators in what remains a Congress(I) stronghold do not want Chief Minister Rama Rao to open it.

And for one reason or the other five collectors have come to Medak in the last four years, three in 1983. The present Collector R. Hrudayaranjan is trying to work out plans to develop the hinterland of Medak so that it can supply vegetables to Hyderabad. Hrudayaranjan's task is an unenviable one since priorities are. reset often.

Salojipalli village, close to Medak town, is a show-piece of how. development has gone wrong. It was to have been converted into a model village by the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. The corporation was to have demonstrated the usefulness of an integrated rural energy system using solar energy and biogas in the village.

But the residents of Salojipalli dismiss the new technology. Says Gopan Buchaiah: "The new streetlights give a false sense of security. Thefts have begun when the lights go off at ten in the night."

Now that Rama Rao holds Andhra Pradesh tightly in his grip, there is speculation that Mrs Gandhi may not stand for election again from Medak. In that case the grand plans are almost certain to stay stalled. Unfortunately, the district which went on the national map four years ago appears to have missed the development bus.