Hyderabad: Telangana is moving towards its goal of becoming a USD 3 trillion economy, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said on Saturday, August 15, while delivering his Independence Day address from the ramparts of the Golconda Fort in Hyderabad.
Reddy asserted that the state’s per capita income now stands nearly 91 per cent above the national average, even as the Congress government had spent its 32 months in office repairing what it inherited.
“The government is making efforts to rebuild and revive Telangana after restoring its damaged state,” he said in his roughly 55-minute speech, adding that systems that had been damaged were restored one by one.
Citing a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report, Reddy said Telangana’s per capita income in 2025-26 was Rs 4,18,931, nearly 91 per cent higher than the country’s per capita income, and described the figure as undeniable evidence of the strength of the state’s economy.
The government was simultaneously expanding welfare, setting a new direction for development and laying the foundations of an action plan to meet future needs.
Welfare is not a burden: Revanth Reddy
Reddy pushed back at the framing of welfare spending as a drain on the exchequer, saying it was neither a financial burden nor merely an exercise in accounting for money spent. Welfare involved humanity, responsibility, the desire to bring happiness to people, efforts to provide a healthy population and a commitment to ensuring a life of self-respect and dignity, he said.
The government was not looking at welfare through the prism of votes or politics, he said, adding that every scheme carried a social perspective. The efforts of the past 32 months were now yielding results, he said.
Rs 2 lakh loan waiver, record paddy procurement
Turning to the farm sector, the Chief Minister said crop loans of up to Rs 2 lakh had been waived as promised, giving debt relief to more than 25 lakh farmer families, while over Rs 36,000 crore had been provided under the Rythu Bharosa scheme. More than Rs 9,000 crore of that had been credited to farmers’ accounts in just the previous two days, he said.
Farmers had also been paid a bonus of Rs 500 per quintal for fine-quality paddy and total spending on agriculture and farmers’ welfare had crossed Rs 1.70 lakh crore, Reddy said. He claimed Telangana had overtaken Punjab to become the country’s leading state in both paddy cultivation area and production.
The state had set a fresh record in procurement as well, buying 81.12 lakh metric tonne of paddy through 8,575 procurement centres during the previous Yasangi season, he said.
On irrigation, the Chief Minister said Telangana would not step back from securing its rightful share of the Krishna and Godavari waters. Incomplete projects would be completed at a faster pace and water supplied up to the last ayacut, he said.
Free bus travel, power and gas subsidy for women
Reddy said women’s empowerment was a priority for his government, whose goal was to make every girl and woman in Telangana a Mahalakshmi.
Free travel for all women on Road Transport Corporation (RTC) buses under the Mahalakshmi scheme had so far accounted for more than 335 crore journeys, he said, with over 34 lakh women using the facility every day and saving more than Rs 11 crore.
Under Gruha Jyothi, free electricity of up to 200 units was being given to 53.09 lakh families, with 10.97 crore zero bills issued so far, while 42.90 lakh families were receiving gas cylinders at Rs 500, he said.
The government had spent Rs 4,709 crore under Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak to assist 1.68 lakh women, Reddy said. Self-help groups had been extended Rs 60,487 crore in loans through bank linkage and Rs 1,900 crore released as interest under the interest-free loan scheme.
Exhibitions had been organised at Shilparamam in Hyderabad to sell products made by women, he said, praising them for stitching school uniforms, operating solar pumps and women’s electric buses, and owning RTC buses.
Indiramma houses a symbol of self-respect: Telangana CM
On the Indiramma Housing Scheme, the CM said the houses were not merely four walls and a concrete roof but a symbol of self-respect for the poor.
The government was transforming the sense of helplessness that came from believing one could never build a home despite a lifetime of toil into the confidence of proudly saying, “We have a home of our own.”
“We launched the construction of 4.5 lakh houses in the first phase, providing financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh per house. Special priority has been accorded to tribal communities, mainly Chenchu tribe, and extremely backward families,” he said.
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