The year 2014 will go down in history as one that closed the tumultuous chapter of combined Andhra Pradesh, at least in the final stages, and opened a new innings for the truncated State and just born Telangana.
The year began on a high note with the Congress led governments at the Centre and State going all out to divide the State and, in the process, creating a political storm that made huge difference to the fortunes of all parties in the election year. The State was divided by an Act of Parliament in February and the same received Presidential assent on March 1 when the incumbent Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy put in his papers and paved way for the President’s rule till June 2. It was partially withdrawn on that day to facilitate creation of Telangana State.
The swearing in of TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao as the first Chief Minister of Telangana on June 2 raised high hopes among people that the injustice done to the region by previous rulers would be set right. In the two sessions of Assembly this year, the message was loud and clear that he meant business in fulfilling their expectations. In the process, he took pro-poor measures such as hike in social security pensions and distribution of three acres land to Scheduled Castes.
The nearly seven-month TRS rule was not a smooth affair in the absence of full compliment of IAS officers who are the backbone of administration. As their distribution between the two States has just been completed, it is only in the New Year that their services will be available on full scale.
The government released Rs. 4,250 crore towards the first instalment to waive the loans of farmers and initiated steps to restore the irrigation tanks in rural areas. It also announced a grandiose plan to provide drinking water to every household under a water grid mission.
The budget for the State was passed with an outlay of over Rs. 1 crore last month. However, most of the spending will be only in the coming months till March end as it is only now that the works got administrative sanction.
The new State was not without its share of woes as suicide by farmers owing to crop loss continued unabated. There were also problems of power cut and frequent conflict with Andhra Pradesh over issues of students, firstly about repayment of tuition fee and then conducting combined Intermediate exams.
The Chief Minister has in the last few days announced bhavans for different communities and even laid foundation stone for some of them. He has also taken up a series of aerial surveys to inspect lands for various projects.
