Already in poll mode, KCR aims to be Telangana's Baahubali
KCR is offering a slew of sops ahead of the next Assembly elections. Is K Chandrasekhar Rao the Baahubali to deliver Bangaru Telangana (Golden Telangana)?
The question that crops up as the central character of the legendary film becomes a part of the political lexicon in the state. During the ongoing Budget session of the Telangana legislature, both inside and outside, the ruling TRS and the rival Congress have locked horns about the Baahubali in their parties.
While for TRS chief’s daughter K Kavitha, KCR is the only Baahubali in Telangana, senior Congress leader K Jana Reddy foresees one emerging before the 2019 Assembly polls to steer his party to victory.
Whether it is wishful thinking or not, the state’s budgetary plans for 2017-18 suggests that the ruling TRS is determined in its preparation for an electoral comeback in 2019. A slew of welfare and sops is to be implemented.
These include exclusive reservation of funds for Scheduled Castes and Tribes based on their population through a Special Development Fund and reservation for economically backward Muslims in education and employment.
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| KCR is offering a slew of sops ahead of the next Assembly elections. |
Other schemes for implementation include funds for sheep rearing, promotion of fisheries, welfare of handloom weavers, women, government employees, Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Backward Classes, minorities and fee reimbursement for students.
There is emphasis on strengthening the rural economy and encouraging caste-based professions like barbers to get financial help to set up modern hair cutting salons and in buying washing machines, dryers and irons and modern dhobi ghats for washermen.
After irrigation including Mission Kakatiya for rejuvenating village tanks, the panchayati raj and rural development department is provided the highest budgetary allocation of Rs 12,800 crore to strengthen road infrastructure in villages. A new scheme for newborns and mothers is to reduce child and maternal mortality in the state.
It is also the first to be named after the TRS patriarch. The "KCR Kit" will have 16 items including diapers, a mosquito net and mattress besides cosmetics as well as toys is to be handed out, spending Rs 605 crore. It is modelled on Tamil Nadu’s "Amma Kit" for the same target group.
The estimated total expenditure of Rs 1.49 lakh crore is Rs 19,000 crore more than the estimates for 2016-17. A number of programmes, including 2- BHK homes for the poor, are envisaged for implementation through extra-budgetary resources implying the expenditure for 2017-18 would be significantly higher than the budgeted amount.
Yet, it is not a please-all exercise. KCR has declared if the 2,00,000 2-BHK houses for the poor, which he has promised were not ready by end of 2017-18, his party will not go out to seek votes while ruling out the prospects of advancing elections.
“People will bless us, if we do good work. Even if the Opposition tries to scuttle development works by filing cases in courts, we will achieve our targets,” says a confident KCR, deploring the Congress filing 34 cases against construction of irrigation projects.
“The word impossible does not exist in the dictionary of our chief minister. Moreover, Telangana is a new state and we should be optimistic,” says finance minister Etela Rajender. In effect, Telangana’s outstanding public debt is set to cross Rs 1.4 lakh crore by the end of 2017-18, taking the per capita debt of the more than 3.5 crore population to Rs 40,000.
Further, the debt burden will account for 18.51 per cent of the total GSDP in 2017-18. It does not worry KCR. He cites China as inspiration for having dumped ideology for development. Neither the Congress nor the BJP in the state are impressed and allege that even budgetary numbers are being manipulated.
“KCR is pushing the state into a debt trap. We will not keep quiet if the TRS tries to loot the public exchequer,” says the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee president N Uttam Kumar Reddy. “There is a mismatch between promises and performance,” rues BJP Legislature Party leader G Kishan Reddy.
The state government hopes to realise KCR’s vision of Bangaru Telangana in the shortest possible time. For that, the TRS is working towards seeking a second term in office.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)