Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Thursday remarked that nothing but religious and casteist hatred is currently in discourse across the country and people’s basic needs have taken a back seat.
KCR made these remarks during his speech at the official Telangana formation day event that took place at the Public Gardens in Nampally, Hyderabad on Thursday. He said that the state has progressed immensely in the last eight years since the day of its formation in 2014.
He also said that Telangana’s agenda of welfare and development should be applied across the country and the people of the state should lead the fight in nation-building. He attacked the Centre on various burning issues like paddy procurement and religious intolerance in the country.
Other important points from his speech
No state in the country in the last seventy five years has achieved what Telangana has achieved in the last eight years. Since the time of the state’s formation to now, in various sectors like financial growth, percapita income, uninterrupted power supply, drinking water supply, welfare, industrial and IT growth, conditions have improved drastically.
An upwards trend
The Economic Survey 2020-21 has praised Telangana for its fast paced recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. That is an indicator for the state government’s competence in handling the finances effectively. In 2013-14, the state’s GSDP was at Rs 5.05 lakh crores and by 2021-22 it grew to Rs 11.54 lakh crores.
The Per capita income of the state grew from Rs 1.24 lakhs in 2013-14 to Rs 2.78 lakhs in 2021-22. This is eighty six percent higher than the national average of Rs 1.49 lakhs. We have used every single rupee of this growth for the development of people.
Recognition for state programmes
Telangana was massively suffering due to regular power supply interruptions by the time of its formation. It has now bid farewell to such power cuts. Today, the government is able to provide uninterrupted power supply to all sectors including farmers.
Also, with Mission Bhagiradha programme, we have succeeded in supplying clean, safe drinking water to 100% houses in the state. Due to this, the fluorosis issue in districts like Nalgonda has been fully eradicated. Our state has also won the National Water Mission Award for this project. Nowhere in the state do we see scenes of women standing in queues and carrying pots for water.
Agriculture: a celebration
Farmers of Telangana had suffered badly due to the unthinking and discriminatory policies of rulers in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. There was no power, no water and farmers died by suicide due to massive debts and an inability to feed their families.
After the state’s formation, due to policies like loan forgiveness, 24*7 power supply, Mission Kakatiya, disbursal of fertilisers and seeds on time, tight seal on fake seeds, Raitu Bandhu, Farmers’ insurance etc.. agriculture has become a celebration in Telangana.
The construction of the Kaleshwaram Project is one of the greatest moments in the history of the nation. We have awed everybody by completing the project in a very short span of just three years. Only in countries like China is such speedy construction of such huge projects was previously possible. By 2014, only 20 lakh acres in the state had the facility of water for irrigation.
But by 2021, Telangana government has provided the same for 85.89 lakh acres. We are moving forward with the aim of providing water for irrigation for 1 crore acres in the state.
Dalit Bandhu
Never in the history of India has a scheme come up specifically focussed on the upliftment of Dalits like the ‘Dalit Bandhu’ scheme that we introduced. The scheme aims to improve the financial conditions of the community and thereby facilitating their fight to break caste barriers in our society.
Along with the Rs 10 lakh per family under this scheme, we are also providing ten percent reservations to the Dalit community in getting government licenses in areas like medical shops, fertiliser shops, wine shops, supply contracts to hospitals and hostels.
A total of 261 wine shop licenses were granted to Dalits under this quota in a total of 2616 wine shop licenses provided in the state. This year, the government allocated Rs 17700 crores for the implementation of Dalit Bandhu scheme.
Central government’s “discrimination”
During the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh rule, people of Telangana faced discrimination on many fronts. Now, the Union government is doing the same to us. Instead of providing special provisions to speedy developing states, the behaviour of the Centre towards them is quite discouraging. This has been happening since the formation of the state.
Even before celebrating the formation of Telangana, the Centre merged seven mandals of the Khammam district in the state of Andhra Pradesh. We have lost lower Sileru power project because of this decision. We had even given a call of strike against it. In one word, we have been fighting the undemocratic behaviour of the Centre from that day to until now.
They (Centre) dragged the issue of division of High Court for five years. Niti Ayog’s recommendations of granting Rs 24000 crores to the projects of Mission Bhagiradha and Mission Kakatiya havent been taken into consideration. I have personally requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to provide us additional funds as we are a new state but to no avail. The Centre provided no extra rupee to the states inspite of the hardest conditions that they suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They have also cut down on the funds that were previously given to us. The Centre has declared our nine erstwhile districts as backward but is delaying the grants.
The AP reorganisation act says that the newly formed state should get a tax holiday along with additional provisions for the establishment of industries. But the Centre did no such remarkable thing. They have implemented no promises from the act. The Bayyaram Steel plant and the Khajipet railway coach factory are nowhere to be seen.
The Centre, by not establishing The Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in the state, did a great misfortune for the people of Telangana. The IT sector would have improved a lot more and would have to led to more jobs here by doing that. The AP reorganisation act said that the constituencies should be delimited. The Centre is just wasting time by not implementing the act.
I wrote to the Prime Minister informing him that the state government will bare the costs of education for all the medical students who came back from Ukraine escaping war in the midst of their course. I requested him to make way for those students to continue their education in our country. But no action has been taken in that direction.
An “incompetent” Centre
The Centre has terribly failed due to its sheer incompetence in procuring paddy from farmers of the state. All people’s representatives including me sat on dharnas including one in New Delhi protesting their attitude on this subject. BKU leader Rakesh Tikait sat with us in the protest as solidarity. A Union minister even belittled the people of Telangana by saying that we eat broken rice. This is arrogance. Farmers of this country arent beggars. There has to be a unified policy across the country for crop procurement or else, Farmers will take to roads against this mentality.
The Centre’s behaviour has become a stumbling block for states like Telangana, which maintains financial discipline by managing loans and investment expenditure within FRBM limits. I demand the Centre immediately reconsider and lift the economic sanctions imposed on the states and stop any further violation of the rights of the states. In five years, Telangana lost Rs 25,000 crore. If we want these Rs 25,000 crore we have to install meters at the farmers well and collect the power charges. That is not our policy.
The state is not to accept any policy that creates a burden on farmers. I will not accept these anti-farmer power reforms as long as I am alive. People’s welfare in the state is very important to me.
“Shrinking federal spirit”
The Centre’s policy is currently based on the clandestine principle of ‘strong Centre and weak states’ and it is in the violation of state’s rights. While many countries overcame monarchy and dictatorship to adopt parliamentary systems and increased public empowerment by decentralising power, India has moved in the opposition direction.
Even after 75 years, decentralisation of powers did not take place. And on the contrary, authoritarian tendencies increased and power became more centralised. The federal spirit which should have expanded, is shrinking.
