Fifty months of TRS rule makes a huge difference

 Let me, as the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, for exactly 50 months, since 19th of June 2014, present an eye-witness and concise account of the just completed 50 months tenure in the offiLet me, as the Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) to Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, for exactly 50 months, since 19th of June 2014, present an eye-witness and concise account of the just completed 50 months tenure in the office of KCR with his apex team. ce of KCR with his apex team. 

After successfully spearheading the struggle and achieving Telangana as the 29th state of Indian Union, Rao went on to become its first Chief Minister. Since coming to power on June 2, 2014, he has focused on governance with a difference and has left no stone unturned in defining, designing and delivering the schemes that the state and its people required. 

I remember the day (17th June 2014), just two days before I officially assumed charge as CPRO to CM, when the CM presided over an informal marathon meeting lasting for more than eight hours, from afternoon till late in the evening, a fortnight after he was sworn in as CM.  He presented his vision of the state, emphasising constantly that “Telangana needs to be reinvented and reoriented.” 

During the meeting, the CM unveiled his vision on several aspects that the state would be facing and the process to deal with them. All subjects were covered like Telangana budget and the funds flow; sources of income; resource mobilisation; agriculture loan waiver; fee reimbursement; KG-to-PG free and compulsory education; irrigation projects as a priority item; drinking water project; power projects and power supply without cuts; housing for poor; massive employment programme; single window industrial policy; police reforms; brand image of Hyderabad city; massive and schematic plantation; Our Village and Our Planning; land purchase scheme for Dalits etc., among others.  

Subsequently and from time to time, for taking forward his vision, the CM held a series of review meetings, touching every aspect of development and welfare of the state and people. He used to say time and again that the present Telangana state had never existed before in this form and had to be viewed as a new state and, therefore, needed a historic beginning. That is how several schemes were meticulously planned and designed by the CM, giving his personal touch.  

The CM had been abroad only twice, once to Singapore and second time to China to attract foreign investments. On invitation, he participated in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015, held in Dalian, China. 

The Telangana state during the last 50 months recorded remarkable growth in a very short time since it achieved separate hood. Today it has become a development and welfare role model state to the entire country. Every sector that suffered very badly during the erstwhile united rule has been rejuvenated. The people-centric development designs and plans extended a helping hand to poor, vulnerable and downtrodden. Welfare measures benefited the have-nots and disadvantaged immensely. As envisioned by CM, the state has been reinventing and reorienting itself and, in the process, helping the nation’s development.

The KCR government firmly initiated steps to overcome agrarian crisis that existed at the time of formation of state, and strengthen agriculture sector, and thereby instill self-confidence in the farmer. Waiver of Rs 17,000 crore agricultural loans benefiting 35.29 lakh farmers, payment of input subsidies, waiving of transport tax on agriculture tractors, increasing the amount of compensation to the members of the bereaved farmer families who committed suicide to Rs 6 lakh, procuring and making available to the farmer fertilisers and seeds well in advance, stringent steps against those who supply spurious fertilisers, pesticides and seeds were some of the measures initiated and implemented by the KCR government.  

Telangana is the one and only state in the country which has been supplying quality power free of cost round-the-clock to the farmer from January 1, 2018. Those who cursed that Telangana would plunge into darkness if the state was formed had to swallow their words. In a short period from now, Telangana would become a power-surplus state.

To make the farmers aware of the strength of unity, Rythu Samanvaya Samithis (Farmers Coordination Committees) were formed. These committees help the farmer right from seeding to obtaining support price for their product at every stage. Reservations have been introduced in Market Committees enabling individuals belonging to SC, ST, BC and women become chairmen of the market committees. 

For an everlasting permanent solution to the land disputes and for maintaining the land records with utmost transparency, the State government has carried out comprehensive cleansing of land records. The efforts of government resulted in getting clarity of rights of land ownership in respect of 94% of the lands in the state. The government also initiated comprehensive reforms to achieve 100% transparency in the land registration system for which Dharani website has been designed.

‘RYTHU BANDHU’ aiming at investment support to agriculture is being implemented. Through this scheme, every land-owning farmer gets financial help at the rate of Rs 4000 per acre per season, totally amounting to Rs 8,000. The government has distributed cheques worth Rs 5,111 crore for the first crop to 49,49,000 farmers. It is for the first time in the history of the country that on such a large-scale distribution of money to the farmers took place. 

The government started implementing through Life Insurance Corporation of India from August 15, 2018 the Rythu Bhima scheme which aims at paying Rs 5 lakh insurance amount to the members of the bereaved farmer’s family within 10 days of the death and create confidence in the family.