The newly formed Telangana state had many challenges which it could successfully tackle one by one and made significant achievements in various sectors, said IT minister K T Rama Rao. He was delivering the Abhay Tripathi Memorial Lecture on Friday. Abhay Tripathi was an Indian Administrative Officer of the Andhra Pradesh cadre, 1986 batch.
KTR said that Telangana was formed after decades-long struggle and a clarion call to fight, unite, and strive. 2014 presented a compulsion for both UPA and NDA, and they had no option but to create Telangana. Since Telangana was formed, the expectations from a new state were too many and the new government had to work to meet these expectations. The planning, statistics and data were critical which posed another challenge. Unfortunately, enough data was not available. For instance, the water infrastructure data and inventory were available only till 1980, KTR added.
However, under the visionary and able leadership of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the state could tackle the challenges one by one. “Good economics is good politics and that is why Telangana is the number one startup state of India,” Mr Rama Rao pointed out. The division of Andhra and Telangana created its own issues. The distribution of power and electricity infrastructure and the rightful share of water between both states were big challenges.
“We have an extremely inimical government at the centre which is not working in the interest of the states – especially non-BJP ruled states. Despite this handicap, Telangana has the highest per capita income and highest growth rate, and we are a power surplus state. We have set up the world’s largest lift irrigation project – ‘Kaleshwaram’. Hopefully, by this October, the ‘Palamuru Rangareddy’ lift irrigation project will be inaugurated,” Mr Rama Rao explained.
Telangana has overtaken Punjab and is now the number one state in paddy procurement and is now the ‘rice bowl’ of India. Agriculture exports have significantly risen, and IT exports are up. The state has increased green cover by 7.7. per cent. Telangana is an aspirational state – what the state does today others do tomorrow.
Hyderabad is the city where the north meets the south, and opportunity meets talent. The government has kept the cosmopolitan character of the city intact and focused on the basics. It is the first state to provide drinking water for all, the Minister said.
Mr Rama Rao pointed out that for two consecutive years, Hyderabad has surpassed Bangalore in tech jobs. This year, 44% of tech jobs created in India were from this city. “Telangana model is unique, holistic, integrated, inclusive, and balanced,” he summed up.