Yanam (French: Yanaon) is a town in the Indian union territory of Puducherry, located in Yanam district, which forms a 30 km² enclave in the district of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. It has a population of just 56,000, most of whom speak Telugu. For 200 years it was a French colony, and, though united with India in 1954, is still sometimes known as French Yanam. It has one MLA who is also a Minister in most of the governments formed at Puducherry who has been getting elected continuously for many terms now.
Though I had been in Pondicherry for almost 30 years now, I never had gone there before and I had the opportunity to go to Yanam for a training programme. As it turned out, most people take the Circar Express which goes upto Kakinada and take a bus from there to Yanam. Myself and my friend Segar also did the same taking catching the Circar Express from Tambaram at about 4.20 pm which proved to be a long journey. It seems that the Indian Railways consider this as a second rate train as we saw that this train had to give the track preference to all kinds of trains some times four to five trains in a row and at one station, the train was side-tracked for almost 90 minutes. But interestingly, the train gains speed and makes up the time (the train schedule itself is designed in such a manner).
The route of the Circar Express is a scenic one. Lush green rice fields interspersed with aquaculture ponds which are being aerated by propellers and it seems the rice fields and the aquaculture farms co-exist quite well, though only a detailed analysis will bring out any inherent problems exist or not. One has the feeling that you are travelling through Kerala as the rice fields were green with adequate water, ponds and channels having water being flowing etc.
Anyhow, we reached Kakinada town quite late about 45 minutes later than its scheduled time. We took an auto to the Kakinada Complex (Bus stand as it locally called) and from there took a bus to Yanam. Though the distance is just a bit over 27 km and a bus fare of Rs.23 per person, the bus journey was so slow, with the condition of the road so bad and also the bus stopping at every single stop. It took about 90 minutes to reach Yanam in the extreme hot and humid climate prevailing..
If you ever had been to Pondicherry or Karaikal or Mahe which are parts of the old colony, one obvious thing you will notice is the sudden change of roads, shops, petrol bunds, liquour shops and one can obviously notice the sudden change of the state with a noticeably richer quality of homes, infrastructure etc. But to our surprise, we hardly noticed that we had reached Yanam and became aware only after Conductor asked us whether we wanted to get down at the old bus stand or new bus stand in Telugu and translated to us to Tamil by a Tamil traveler from Salem who was there in the bus. Too many houses, too small shops, cemented roads but in bad conditions and definitely not maintained well. As soon as we got down, we took an auto to the Government Guest House and the first indicator that Yanam was much backward compared to other enclaves of Pondicherry was when the auto driver demanded Rs.40 only, for which if you were in Pondicherry, the auto drivers would have fleeced at least Rs.60-Rs.80.
The Yanam Guest house is a decent place but lacks maintenance. First thing we noticed that there was no drinking water facility within the Guest House. The window has a grill not fixed to the frame and one can easily remove it which is light and made of aluminium. The AC was working but there was no cooling effect at all. And after about 1 hour of running, it started leaking from one end and we had to keep a bucket which got filled up every three hours or so. We complained to the person who came next day morning to the room and he said that he will inform the management.
We went out and had lunch around 2 pm at the Balaji Hotel which was quite reasonable with Rs.60/meals as the nearby Le Cafe or Govt. Canteen (as we could not read Telugu we are not sure what is the actual ownership of this) did not serve meals.
We went out in the evening to the river front to have a walk and see around. One thing that I noticed was the over doing of all the civil works. The so called ferry road had statues in golden colour on either side of the road for every 20 feet gap. The statues had the names of the leaders written in English followed tens of names of ministers, officers etc. with the same font size. Interestingly, the name of the person whose statue is kept has no description of who he was but the names of others clearly mentioned whether they were ministers, Engineers, with designations etc. One wonders whose purpose these statues serve. May be, the more statues, the more expenditure and the more someone earns !!!.. May the distance between the statues should have been reduced a bit more so that we could include statues of many more dignitaries and hence more "development" also.
With just 30 sq.km and a population of just 5000 or so in 1928, the population has grown to 32000 in 2001 and to 56000 in 2011. How this growth rate of about 75% or more per decade has happened is worth to be researched. Some people say, every five years, new people are brought from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, ration cards and stateship given to them and they become new voters. Obviously, the poverty level of the majority of Yanam people are much higher than the other three enclaves. Till recently (about five or six years before), the educational pass percentage of 10th board exam students (here they write the Andhra Pradesh Board exams) were also not so good. The literacy rate of Yanam is the least in Pondicherry UT, though it might look good compared to other states. Fisheries is one the main occupation of the people other than of course, the government servants themselves..
Some people when enquired also said that the drop out among students is high as boys go for fishing with their fathers. Another interesting fact told by one of the teachers was that the rate of cancer in Yanam is very high , though he could not give any specific reason for the same.
Anyhow one thing is obvious. There is no dearth of money when it comes to "developmental" projects like river front beautification or installation of statues or other mammoth structures which have little or no relevance to the people of Yanam. The quality of infrastructure and their maintenance is much to be improved, whether it is the condition of roads, sewerage channels etc.
But one thing good about Yanam is the cost of living - transport, food etc. May be like in Pondicherry, the autos are not monopolized by politicians or goondas and may be administration is still relevant to the people. Anyhow it shattered the rosy picture of Yanam that I had from others who had gone there before .. I dont know what thefofficial statistics talk about Yanam, but being an over-pampered enclave, the results are no where visible ...!!!
While coming back our train was from Rajahmundry as there are no evening trains from Kakinada to Chennai. Actually Puducherry should have pleaded with the Indian Railways to reschedule the timings of Circar Express so that the train reaches at Kakinada at least by 6 am in the morning and leaves from Kakinada Port by 6pm in the evening so that this will be of immense time consuming for the officials and public who regularly commute from Puducherry to Yanam and back.
We left Yanam at 4.30 pm reached Kakinada by 6pm and took a non-stop bus to Rajamundry which took 2 hours. Finally we boarded a train at 10pm which reached Chennai Central around 9.45 am the next day. May be we should have gone to Ramachandrapuram which is about 27 km and from there to Rajahmundry which is another 37 kms, but there were conflicting advises given to us regarding connectivity and travel time etc. Being first time travelers did not want to take the risk and loose the train.. May be next time? .. Not sure..
Anyhow, a small tiny town with some suburbs also, can be made a wonderful place provided we have the right type of governance with what people actually need. Provided people are made the focus of development, not the contractors or others who have little relationship with the people.
Though I had been in Pondicherry for almost 30 years now, I never had gone there before and I had the opportunity to go to Yanam for a training programme. As it turned out, most people take the Circar Express which goes upto Kakinada and take a bus from there to Yanam. Myself and my friend Segar also did the same taking catching the Circar Express from Tambaram at about 4.20 pm which proved to be a long journey. It seems that the Indian Railways consider this as a second rate train as we saw that this train had to give the track preference to all kinds of trains some times four to five trains in a row and at one station, the train was side-tracked for almost 90 minutes. But interestingly, the train gains speed and makes up the time (the train schedule itself is designed in such a manner).
 |
| The huge statue of Rajiv Gandhi |
The route of the Circar Express is a scenic one. Lush green rice fields interspersed with aquaculture ponds which are being aerated by propellers and it seems the rice fields and the aquaculture farms co-exist quite well, though only a detailed analysis will bring out any inherent problems exist or not. One has the feeling that you are travelling through Kerala as the rice fields were green with adequate water, ponds and channels having water being flowing etc.
Anyhow, we reached Kakinada town quite late about 45 minutes later than its scheduled time. We took an auto to the Kakinada Complex (Bus stand as it locally called) and from there took a bus to Yanam. Though the distance is just a bit over 27 km and a bus fare of Rs.23 per person, the bus journey was so slow, with the condition of the road so bad and also the bus stopping at every single stop. It took about 90 minutes to reach Yanam in the extreme hot and humid climate prevailing..
If you ever had been to Pondicherry or Karaikal or Mahe which are parts of the old colony, one obvious thing you will notice is the sudden change of roads, shops, petrol bunds, liquour shops and one can obviously notice the sudden change of the state with a noticeably richer quality of homes, infrastructure etc. But to our surprise, we hardly noticed that we had reached Yanam and became aware only after Conductor asked us whether we wanted to get down at the old bus stand or new bus stand in Telugu and translated to us to Tamil by a Tamil traveler from Salem who was there in the bus. Too many houses, too small shops, cemented roads but in bad conditions and definitely not maintained well. As soon as we got down, we took an auto to the Government Guest House and the first indicator that Yanam was much backward compared to other enclaves of Pondicherry was when the auto driver demanded Rs.40 only, for which if you were in Pondicherry, the auto drivers would have fleeced at least Rs.60-Rs.80.
The Yanam Guest house is a decent place but lacks maintenance. First thing we noticed that there was no drinking water facility within the Guest House. The window has a grill not fixed to the frame and one can easily remove it which is light and made of aluminium. The AC was working but there was no cooling effect at all. And after about 1 hour of running, it started leaking from one end and we had to keep a bucket which got filled up every three hours or so. We complained to the person who came next day morning to the room and he said that he will inform the management.  |
| These white elephants embodies the development of Yanam |
We went out in the evening to the river front to have a walk and see around. One thing that I noticed was the over doing of all the civil works. The so called ferry road had statues in golden colour on either side of the road for every 20 feet gap. The statues had the names of the leaders written in English followed tens of names of ministers, officers etc. with the same font size. Interestingly, the name of the person whose statue is kept has no description of who he was but the names of others clearly mentioned whether they were ministers, Engineers, with designations etc. One wonders whose purpose these statues serve. May be, the more statues, the more expenditure and the more someone earns !!!.. May the distance between the statues should have been reduced a bit more so that we could include statues of many more dignitaries and hence more "development" also.
 |
| The ever locked out toilets. |
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| The "tiled" river front which had very few people to see around |
Some people when enquired also said that the drop out among students is high as boys go for fishing with their fathers. Another interesting fact told by one of the teachers was that the rate of cancer in Yanam is very high , though he could not give any specific reason for the same.
Anyhow one thing is obvious. There is no dearth of money when it comes to "developmental" projects like river front beautification or installation of statues or other mammoth structures which have little or no relevance to the people of Yanam. The quality of infrastructure and their maintenance is much to be improved, whether it is the condition of roads, sewerage channels etc.
 |
| One of the very few French time buildings left in Yanam |
While coming back our train was from Rajahmundry as there are no evening trains from Kakinada to Chennai. Actually Puducherry should have pleaded with the Indian Railways to reschedule the timings of Circar Express so that the train reaches at Kakinada at least by 6 am in the morning and leaves from Kakinada Port by 6pm in the evening so that this will be of immense time consuming for the officials and public who regularly commute from Puducherry to Yanam and back.
We left Yanam at 4.30 pm reached Kakinada by 6pm and took a non-stop bus to Rajamundry which took 2 hours. Finally we boarded a train at 10pm which reached Chennai Central around 9.45 am the next day. May be we should have gone to Ramachandrapuram which is about 27 km and from there to Rajahmundry which is another 37 kms, but there were conflicting advises given to us regarding connectivity and travel time etc. Being first time travelers did not want to take the risk and loose the train.. May be next time? .. Not sure..
 |
| A typical Yanam street at night |
Anyhow, a small tiny town with some suburbs also, can be made a wonderful place provided we have the right type of governance with what people actually need. Provided people are made the focus of development, not the contractors or others who have little relationship with the people.
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