Telangana election results: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi's report card
The state of Telangana was formed on three tenets that the leaders of the movement promised to deliver in five years – neellu, nidhulu, niyamakaalu — to have its own water resources, to secure its due share of funding from the Centre, and to create its own employment opportunities.
While the sentiments and the promises helped TRS sweep to victory, the opposition — Mahakutami and BJP — have alleged that the state is not entirely self-sufficient in any of the three. Besides this, KCR had also promised two-bedroom houses, free healthcare, free education to poor and low-income groups, free power and irrigation facilities to farmers.
KCR has been quick to point out that every welfare scheme of the government has met with resistance from the opposition parties. Here is a quick look at the success of the three tenets:
Neellu (Water)
Telangana is a largely arid state and survives on rainwater for the most part — despite having two rivers – Godavari and Krishna. This is because the river water share has been an ongoing dispute between Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and the Telangana leaders allege they got the raw deal when the state was bifurcated.
When he came to power, KCR announced Mission Kakatiya — a minor irrigation infrastructure development programme — to restore tanks and strengthen community-based irrigation. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) compliance audit found loopholes in the implementation of the mission and said that the target of restoring 20 per cent of tanks in three months to be unmet and unrealistic. However, the evaluation report by NABARD Consultancy Services said that the mission had done well in increasing the irrigation intensity by 45.6 per cent over the base year.
This seems to be the only claim to KCR’s neellu fame. With 70 per cent of the state’s agricultural households relying on groundwater, incurring debts to dig tube wells and dug wells — according to the Telangana Social Development Report — agriculture is a serious political factor in the state. Agriculture is the lifeline of the economy, providing livelihood to more than 55.5 per cent of the state’s population. Further, schemes like Rythu Bandhu — Farmers’ Investment Support Scheme (FISS) — providing financial assistance of Rs 4,000 to land owning patta farmers for every acre they own, is being used as a compensation for crop loss they incur. The farmers aver that scheme would be more useful as a subsidy for farm inputs than as a cash incentive. Moreover, the Rythu Bandhu scheme that was intended to benefit the small farmers (those owning less than five acres) and the marginal farmers (those owning land less than 2.5 acres) has not found any favour with them. These small and marginal farmers make up 86 per cent of the state’s agricultural households. Instead, it ended up making life easier for bigger farmers, most of whom are absentee landlords — who employ agricultural labourers or tenant farmers to cultivate their lands. These large farmers do not pass down the benefits of the Rythu Bandhu scheme and pocket it as extra income. Landless, small and marginal farmers are at the most risk of taking their own lives due to indebtedness, according to statistics. Telangana had the third highest farmer suicides in the country after Maharashtra and Karnataka in 2015, according to data submitted by the central government to the Supreme Court. Since the state was formed, 2190 farmers have committed suicide — more than one every day of KCR’s regime. Of these, 124 suicides took place in Siddipet district in Gajwel constituency — of which KCR is the MLA.
Moreover, there is the issue of access to irrigation. According to the Telangana Social Development Report, Only 25.5 per cent of the scheduled caste and 29.9 per cent of the scheduled tribe households have access to irrigation. Farmers have alleged that the reservoir waters being diverted to politicians' favoured constituencies and irrigation projects allocated for politically beneficial areas. Further, experts have questioned the flagship irrigation scheme — the Kaleshwaram project.
Nidhulu (funds):
According to the Telangana Budget 2018-19 tabled in March 2018, the state’s debt stands at Rs 1.80 lakh crore, on which the government is paying interest of Rs 11,000 crore every year. Finance minister Etela Rajender in his speech admitted that servicing the debt is a major burden on the state government and that the debt was 16.18 per cent of GSDP in 2015-16 (Rs 93,155 crore) and has increased to 21.39 per cent (Rs 1.80 lakh crore) in 2018-19. However, he refuted that the TRS government was pushing Telangana into a debt trap, and defended the loans to the media, reportedly saying that they were taken to create assets such as irrigation projects, roads, Mission Bhagiratha and so on, which will boost the overall development of the state in the long run.
“Under the FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act states are allowed to borrow only up to 3 per cent of GSDP and for a revenue surplus state like Telangana, 3.5 per cent is allowed. We are securing loans we are eligible for and entitled to. Nothing more can be borrowed beyond the FRBM borrowing limits,” the minister had said.
A claim categorically disproved by the CAG.
Pointing out the anomalies in Telangana government’s accounting, the CAG Report on State Finances-2017 that was tabled at the end of March this year — days after the Telangana government’s budget — firmly states the state exceeded the ratio of fiscal deficit to GSDP ceiling of 3.5 per cent under the FRBM Act. This besides, the report also said that the state’s claims based on the audit of the Appropriation Accounts were flawed and Telangana had overstated its revenue surplus due to irregular accounting.
It is also worth mentioning here that when the state was formed, Telangana had a revenue surplus of Rs 7500 crore for the year 2014-15. In fact, it was the counter that the TRS had given to their detractors that Telangana already existed as a prosperous, developed and surplus State.
Niyamakaalu (Employment opportunities):
Unemployment among the people of Telangana has become a major poll issue this time. The government has been constantly attacked by the opposition over lack of employment in the state.
KCR had announced that the Telangana government was taking measures to provide 84,876 jobs. “With this, 112,536 posts have been created which are over and above the one lakh figure that has been promised. The government has issued instructions to start the process of recruitment of jobs to fill the vacancies that are required for next year also,” he reportedly said. In less than three months of the announcement, in October 2017, Rao reiterated that the state government was committed to filling the 1.12 lakh vacant posts in various government departments.
The TRS government claims that it gave 43 per cent fitment to government employees and hiked the wages and honorarium to contract and outsourced employees. “We have provided job security to around 5 lakh people and also hiked their wages. The finance department accorded administrative approval for filling 1,28,274 posts in the government sector in the last four years and the process of recruitment to 1,02,270 posts is in various stages. Notifications have been issued for filling 87,346 posts. So far, the recruitment process has been completed with regard to 37,781 posts,” state’s Finance Minister Etela Rajender reportedly said.
However, he admitted to the unemployed youth being discontented. “The government would provide only 4 per cent jobs and the private sector 96 per cent employment. The recruitment of employees has declined even in the US,” the minister countered. To tackle the criticism, the TRS announced to include an allowance for unemployed individuals of Rs 3,016 per month in its poll manifesto.
The party, however, drew opposition fire over the announcement. “Instead of filling up vacancies (in government offices), KCR is promising unemployment allowance; this looks ridiculous and insulting and cheating the unemployed youth,” CPI National General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy reportedly told the media.