Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has confined himself to the camp office from the day the Congress Working Committee announced its decision to create a separate Telangana State on July 30.
With several Ministers, MPs, MLAs and MLCs submitting their resignations due to mounting pressure from their constituents, the Chief Minister too has been keeping away from the Secretariat since the last six days.
At a time when the government completed the three-phase panchayat elections on July 31 and the Chief Minister was gearing up to organise the ‘Rachchabanda’ programme where it was proposed to sanction 14 lakh new ration cards, pensions and housing to new applicants, before going for municipal elections, the Centre’s announcement on Telangana brought all these plans to nought. Ministers from the two regions have not been coming to the Secretariat for different reasons. While those from Seemandhra have been avoiding coming in view of the public protests in their constituencies in the region, those from Telangana districts appear to be busy with victory rallies and addressing public meetings.
With administrative matters taking a backseat, what is engaging the employees and IAS officers is speculation about how the Centre would go about the division of the State, apportioning of resources between the two States and how it would impact their future. The location of the new capital or whether Hyderabad will continue as the permanent common capital is another highly debated subject.