30 days as CM, KCR makes his mark
Hyderabad: Amidst a plethora of challenges that stare him in building the new State of Telangana on many fronts, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday completed one month in office, establishing his mark on the administration.
He took over the reins of the State on June 2, the same day Telangana State came into existence as 29th state of India. KCR was sworn in as first Chief Minister of Telangana state, along with 11 cabinet colleagues.
His ascension to power is culmination of a 14 years long battle by his TRS for separate statehood for the region. People of Telangana have been fighting for their own State since 1956.
Vowing to build a 'Bangaru Telangana', the Chief Minister began his rule virtually from the scratch. When he entered the office, he had only one Principal Secretary to assist and there were no heads of departments in Secretariat and in the directorates.
KCR got down to business right from the second day and had been working relentlessly. The Chief Minister is holding two review meetings every working day on the functioning of the departments and guiding them as per his policies.
He, however, has been keeping away from publicity and wants to let his governance talk. Notwithstanding the fact that there are not enough number of All India Service officers and the officials are working on provisional basis, the Chief Minister has taken several crucial decisions such as waiver of crop loans up to Rs 1 lakh, continuation of fee reimbursement scheme for students of weaker sections, demolition of illegal structures in the controversial Gurukul Trust lands and modernization of police forces. He also quickly brought into force the new Excise Policy that would fetch good revenue to the government.
Besides, he was able to instill confidence among the investors and industrialists, particularly in Information Technology sector by making his son K T Rama Rao regularly interact with them. The biggest challenge he has been facing is the power shortage staring at the new State.
There have been power cuts for long-hours all over the State. At the same time, there was a provocation from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in the form of scrapping of Power Purchase Agreements. He, however, resisted the move strongly and ensured that status quo was maintained.
The Chief Minister has been keeping the officials and his cabinet colleagues on toes always which was evident from the way he deputed his senior cabinet colleagues including Naini Narasimha Reddy, Mahender Reddy and Jogu Ramanna to visit Mandi in Himachal Pradesh to oversee rescue of students of Hyderabad-based engineering college who were washed away in flash floods.
He also wanted the officials to expedite all the works related to bifurcation and to streamline the administration at the earliest. The Chief Minister faced the first session of the Assembly successfully and went away with his agenda.
He was able to calm down the opposition in the matters of crop loans waiver and other issues. His decisions to make Bonalu and Bathukamma festivals as State festivals and celebration of former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao birth anniversary as State function were widely acclaimed.
The Chief Minister is keen on improving the image of the Hyderabad, the lifeline of Telangana and initiated several activities in this regard. Introduction of smart policing, up keeping the sanitation, efforts to bring investments to the city and exercise on the new industrial policy are the proactive measures being taken in this direction.
News Posted: 2 July, 2014
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