Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao today stressed on a "bottoms-up" approach of planning in Telangana State and said he was in no hurry to show visible development for another one or two months.
At a meeting with a large number of officials from every district at the MCR-HRD Institute here on Monday, Mr. Rao said he aimed at a development strategy that was in the context of Telangana State and tuned to its needs. The administration of the State which was in the context of a combined State till recently will be "reinvented and reoriented" in the changed circumstances.
In his two and a half hour long speech, Mr. Rao set out his priorities in various sectors, including irrigation, power and welfare, where he identified several lapses in the combined State.
In irrigation, he said Telangana suffered badly as it lost about 200 tmc ft water storage in minor irrigation sector due to destruction of tanks. A storage of 265 tmc ft in the tanks was guaranteed by Bachawat tribunal in Krishna and Godavari basins but the availability now was only 65 tmc ft. He asked irrigation officials to rejuvenate all the tanks on a war footing.
The Itchampally project across Godavari in Karimnagar district will be constructed and the inter-State project on Lower Penganga taken up with Maharashtra, he added.
Mr. Rao said the government was committed to the crop loan waiver over which the Cabinet will take a view in its next meeting. The Collectors will be asked to unearth scams in housing which were deep rooted. A random survey in 593 villages detected misuse of Rs. 235 crore with records being cooked up to show sanction of houses but no beneficiaries.
The Chief Minister announced the expansion of his Cabinet by month end and the setting up of a State Advisory Council with experts from various walks of life to aid and guide the government. He also said there will be no acquisition of land for special economic zones as 2.20 lakh acres available with the government will be used for industrialisation.
Mr. Rao came down heavily on illegal constructions in Hyderabad and said the government had identified 58,000 of them recently. All of them will be regulated. In addition to the international airport at Shamshabad, he said the city will have two more at Shamirpet and Ghatkesar. He asked officials to stop reclaiming land on the banks of Tank Bund and Musi.
