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Telangana chief minister, K Chandrasekhar Rao, wants to formulate the state plan right from the village level with policies and laws that are relevant to the specific needs of the new state.
“This is not going be a mere bureaucratic planning,” he said emphasising the need for an integrated plan involving the elected representatives from village, mandal and districts in formulating it.
Addressing a workshop of ministers, secretaries, head of departments (HoDs) and district officials here on Monday, Rao also asked ministers to come out with department-level plans.
The chief minister explained that the new state of Telangana was not like the earlier Hyderabad state, which had certain areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka under its jurisdiction. “This is totally a new state and has to reinvent and reorient itself to the current situation.”
In this regard, he pointed out that some of the policies formulated in the context of united Andhra Pradesh may not be relevant. Hence, some previous policies and laws have to be revamped and new ones, suitable to Telangana, have to be framed.
He wanted to impart training to all elected representatives in the next 15-20 days and asked the officials to prepare a schedule in this regard. “All of them should undergo a three-day training programme. After training, we will ask the elected representatives to plan their village, mandal, district and state level plans,” he said, adding there were 8,500 sarpanches and 6,473 Mandal Parishad Territorial Committee members to work at the village level.
Stating that a random survey in 593 villages by the housing department revealed that Rs 200 crore sanctioned for the weaker sections housing programme had been misappropriated, Rao said inquiries would be conducted into all housing scandals in the state and the guilty would be sent to jail.
In the case of industries, the chief minister said 220,000 acres of land was currently available for allotment across Telangana and asked the officials to come up with a comprehensive plan for the development of industries in the state.
One of the goals of the state government, Rao said, was to increase the green cover in Telangana from the existing 25 per cent to 33 per cent of the total area by planting 2.3 billion saplings in the next three years. Every year, 33,000 saplings would be planted in each village taking the total to 99,000 in three years.
The chief minister said the plans of his government included eradication of poverty among Dalits, converting Telangana into a “seed-bowl of India and may be the world”, rejuvenation of minor irrigation system on a war footing and establishment of dumpyards and common graveyards in each village.
In his opening remarks, chief secretary, Rajiv Sharma, said Telangana should have completely new policies based on its specific requirements. The interactive workshop, the first-of-its-kind to be held in the new state, was aimed at exploring separate strategies, policies and practices needed for addressing all aspects of Telangana.
Cabinet expansion
Rao said he would expand his Cabinet by this month-end. A State Advisory Committee would also be set up. He also said his Cabinet would take a decision in its next meeting to waive all farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh as had been mentioned in his party’s election manifesto. He, however, did not elaborate on this aspect during his two-hour long speech.
Hyderabad need two more airports
Rao said the population of Hyderabad would treble in 4-5 years from the current level of 9.4 million following the execution of the Rs 2.3-lakh crore Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR). Hence, the city needed two more airports - one on the north side near Shamirpet or Jawahar Nagar and the other on the east side near Ghatkesar or Keesara.
Stating that Hyderabad would be developed as a world-class city, he said another outer ring road would be established in a radius of 100 km from the city where satellite townships would be set up. Steps would be taken for provision of necessary amenities, de-congestion of traffic and maintenance of law and order.
Pointing that there were 58,000 illegal constructions in the city, he stressed on regulating the city and rooting out political corruption.
