The people of the erstwhile Mahabunagar district were in utter distress. Not for a year but for decades. One could only see vast stretches of parched, broken, wilderness. There was no water for irrigation. Even the people and cattle are deprived of drinking water. Life was sombre and people were forced to resign to their fate.
The holy river Krishna passes through the district but no way to harness it. The successive governments never ever bothered to tap the water for the betterment of people. They only promised people and kept them in hope only to garner their votes. The people having realised that their fates cannot be changed migrated to work as labour across the country. Those infirm and helpless remained in the villages and turned up at the gruel centres run by the generous for their subsistence.
The Mahabubnagar district became famous for its labour and gruel centres all over the country. There were days one could see a number of Mahabubnagar buses all over Mumbai dumping Mahabubnagar people who are considered as ‘cheap labour’ there. For people, it is a fight for survival. The successive governments could not even take up the minor irrigation projects. The leaders of every political party in the district were only fighting against each other and stalling the projects moving the Courts.
When the people lost all their hope and stopped believing in the political leaders, they saw a ray of hope in the form of one K Chandrasekhar Rao who gave up his position as Deputy Speaker of the Assembly of the then Andhra Pradesh state. He questioned the rationale of the regimes and political leaders for remaining mute to the suffering of people everywhere in the Telangana region. Every district of the region was wrought with a plethora of problems – mainly water, development and its due share in the government jobs.
He hit the road in 2001 forming Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS). For him, it was an easy task. His intentions were questioned, conspiracies were designed to stall him and people engaged in bad propaganda against him. Those who eagerly joined him fell off midway losing hope. They thought it was impossible to fight against the regimes headed by Andhra leaders and they saw the task as an impossible proposition.
Mr KCR did not lose hope. He kept goading those with him. One day, his dream of achieving separate statehood for the Telangana region will be realised. But very few believed him. He went ahead moving the masses and convincing them that there was no other way but to stand united and keep fighting. After 14 long years of unrelenting efforts, he moved the mountains. He delivered his promise. A dream of people of six decades.
People again bestowed him with another responsibility – this time to head them and relieve them from their misery. He was elected the first CM and head of the government in 2014 and continues his mission. This time, his focus is mainly on turning the parched state into a fertile state. His mission continues to this day. After the prestigious Kaleshwaram lift irrigation, the long-awaited Palamuru-Rangareddy Lift Irrigation is ready for inauguration. What more could call for a celebration in the life of people and in the life of a redeemer?
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao