AP Cong Govt completes two years in power

May 20, 2011 09:19 pm | Updated 09:22 pm IST - Hyderabad

Andhra Pradesh, Tirupati, 24 Nov 2010:Speaker N.Kirankumar Reddy, MLA of Piler constituency in Chittoor district. (for file)

Andhra Pradesh, Tirupati, 24 Nov 2010:Speaker N.Kirankumar Reddy, MLA of Piler constituency in Chittoor district. (for file)

The Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh today completed two years in power, but there was no official function to mark the anniversary as the party and the government grapple with a series of issues and growing dissidence.

The ruling party observed ‘re-dedication day’ for six years ever since it returned to power in 2004.

This time, however, the Congress is bogged down with too many problems, including growing dissidence within its ranks, forcing it to skip the “re-dedication day” that marks the government’s anniversary.

“Re-dedication day” was rather a symbolic, though high-profile, celebration that the government organised every year in unison with the Congress party.

It was on May 20, 2009 that Y S Rajasekhara Reddy became the Chief Minister for a second successive term after having completed a five-year stint.

Barely four months into his second term, he was killed in a tragic helicopter crash on September 2, 2009 and since then both the government as well as the party had literally fallen off the track.

Veteran K Rosaiah, who succeeded YSR as Chief Minister, performed the re-dedication ceremony in May 2010 despite the turmoil that the State was passing through over the separate Telangana statehood issue.

A “young” N Kiran Kumar Reddy, who supplanted an ageing Rosaiah in November 2010, was supposed to put governance back on the track and revitalise the party but he has not lived up to expectations in the last six months, Congress leaders say.

Primarily, the Congress leaders point out, Mr. Kiran failed to earn the confidence of his cabinet colleagues as disgruntlement was brewing since the inception of the Council of Ministers.

Neither Mr. Kiran himself nor the AICC’s “special core group” on AP affairs headed by Pranab Mukherjee, which was supposed to handle the political crisis to enable the Chief Minister focus solely on governance, could stem the crises plaguing the party and the government.

This is having a telling impact on the State administration even as managing the dwindling finances and a burgeoning welfare bill is proving an uphill task. The so-called ‘development’ too has come to a standstill with the much-hyped Jalayagnam - which the government claims is its “flagship programme” - turning into a millstone around its neck.

That the Congress failed to implement the only two promises it made on the 2009 election-eve bears testimony to the dicey situation the government is in.

Increasing the quota of rice for each below poverty line family under the public distribution system from 20 kgs to 30 kgs a month (at Rs 2-a-kg) and free power supply to farm sector from seven hours to nine hours a day has not happened as promised by the Congress in 2009.

A State minister said they have requested the Government of India to enhance the rice quota to the State and it is still pending with them.

“Once we get the increased quota, we will implement the hike here,” the minister said.

But, the fact is, the Central government has refused to accept the number of BPL families as projected by the State government and, as such, it is not considering the request for enhancement of rice quota, official sources say.

“The internal rift in the ruling party has overshadowed everything else in the last two years. The Congress is so deeply stuck in its own crisis that it has not allowed the government to concentrate either on development or welfare programmes,” Telugu Desam Party politburo member Yanamala Ramakrishnudu told PTI.

Excepting changing two chief ministers, the Congress achieved nothing in the last two years, he remarked.

“There is utter lack of co-ordination among ministers. Also, there is no cordial relation between the official machinery and the ministers resulting in maladministration,” the former Finance Minister pointed out.

The nine-hour-a-day free power supply to farm sector should have started once the new 500 MW unit at Vijayawada Thermal Power Station went into stream.

Not only the VTPS unit but also a couple of other units were synchronized adding an additional 1,000 MW to the grid in the last one-and-a-half year but still the government is unable to rise the power supply duration to the critical agriculture sector.

None in the government is actually willing to talk on this subject.

CPI(M) politburo member and state secretary B V Raghavulu said the State government was afflicted with paralysis.

“Previously, the Congress displayed a resoluteness that it could deliver anything but now the scene has changed. It is doing nothing now,” he added.

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