he year gone by was a big success for the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) in terms of consolidating its position politically as its strength shot up substantially in the Legislature and local bodies aided by defections from other parties.
The ruling party in the nascen Telangana State had only 63 members when the Legislative Assembly was constituted in 2014 but the number went up to 77 this year in the House of 119.
The party’s strength in the 40-member Legislative Council, which had just three members before elections last year, also increased to 29 with two members of the Congress and a lone one of the TDP switching loyalty to TRS.
Not to be left behind, scores of grassroots level workers of Congress and TDP, who included Councillors, Mandal and Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency members have identified themselves with the TRS. The party originally did not have as big numbers as they appear now in local bodies because they went to polls prior to General Elections last year. The formation of government by TRS later drew most of them to the party fold to enjoy the political clout.
Even on the investment front, the State’s performance was impressive. In the last six months, the Telangana government has cleared nearly 70 projects in four phases involving an investment of over Rs.5,200 crore.
Apart from the Rs.774-crore food processing unit being set up by ITC Ltd, the projects cleared by the State Government include 13 solar power plants and 10 drug manufacturing facilities.
Following the enactment of the Telangana State Industrial Project Approval and Self Certification (TS-iPass) Act, which has a unique clause providing the “Right to Clearances” on the lines of “Right to Information”, the flow of investments into the State is being stated to have picked up.
“An extremely positive business environment is in place now in Telangana and Hyderabad. This is the best we had in many years,” president of Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HYSEA) Ramesh Loganathan told The Hindu .
According to NASSCOM chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy, it was a positive year for the information technology industry in the State. He feels that the establishment of the T-Hub, the largest incubator for startups in the country, is an “outstanding initiative” of IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao.
Failure of monsoons, however, halted Telangana’s development in the rural sector. Farm loans have also not been completely waived. A spate of suicides by farmers marred the image of the TRS government.
On the positive side, the government has been successful in improving the power supply situation. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also made a conscious effort to showcase that the people of Andhra Pradesh origin are as much an integral part of the State as the sons of the soil. The Telangana-AP divide among people has subsided.
The massive victory of TRS in the by-election to Warangal Parliamentary constituency last month boosted the morale of the party cadre. However, it remains to be seen whether it will be as successful in the ensuing elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
TRS Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha B. Vinod Kumar summed up the performance of the party saying it spent the whole of 2014 in stabilising itself and facing the teething problems that emanated from bifurcation. The year 2015 was meant to be for planning and policy making and 2016 for implementation of policies.
