KCR promises 9 hour uninterrupted power supply to farmers in one go

Hyderabad: The Telangana government will neither seek power nor will it buy power from Andhra Pradesh for it would drain the finances as the neighbouring State would be selling it at a higher price of Rs 7.50 per unit.Replying to a discussion on the motion of thanks to Governor’s address, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao said that the government would ensure 9-hour continuous power supply for farmers that too during day time.

Taking a dig at his counterpart, KCR said the AP Chief Minister will be appreciated for the stand he had taken on the issue of not sharing power with Telangana. If he had honoured the provisions of the AP State Reorganisation Act then perhaps the TS would have become habituated to depend on them for power for at least another two decades.

Giving the year-wise target the Government has set for itself in achieving the power production capacity of 24000 MW by 2018, KCR said that the government was committed to fulfill all the promises it had made in its election manifesto and as part of that it would regularise contract employees. Despite the stiff opposition from students’ unions, Rao said that he would not back-off on the promise. The students need not worry about regularisation of contract employees as the government would issue several job notifications in the future, he said.

However, Rao added a rider saying that the government would regularise contract staff hailing from Telangana only. It is the responsibility of the Andhra Pradesh government to take care of contract employees having roots in its state, he said.Considering the growth rate of Telangana state, Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FBRM) and other parameters, the Telangana Government will spend Rs 6,00,000 crore in the next five years.

As much as 3.75 lakh crore will be spent on non-plan expenditure and Rs 2.25 lakh crore would be spent for plan expenditure," Rao told the Telangana Assembly. The proposal to sell government land in Hyderabad to generate revenue has been put on hold, since market conditions are not conducive, he said, adding that the proposal may be taken up as and when the market recovers.

He referred to the 14th Finance Commission's pre-bifurcation remarks and forecast that Telangana would be one of the "surplus" States if separated from Andhra Pradesh. Ground water depletion poses a serious threat to Telangana and the state government has been taking all efforts to tackle water problems during summer, he said.

He also said that the Telangana government has allotted Rs 185 crore during the current financial year to allot three acres of land to each Dalit family in the state. Rao demanded that the Narendra Modi-led government should not make any deduction on schemes such as Integrated Child Development and Anganwadi schemes. "The government is committed to setting up one super speciality hospital in each district by the end of the year," Rao assured the House.  The Telangana government would also implement reservations for Muslims for which it is currently studying models followed in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Source: THI