Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K. Chandrasekhar Rao is expected to get down to serious business soon after taking over as the first Chief Minister of Telangana State on June 2 by fulfilling five key promises he had made in the election manifesto.
Top on his agenda is paying back to the families of persons who had sacrificed their lives for the cause of separate Telangana. On Day One, he is likely to hold the maiden meeting of his Cabinet where the compensation to martyrs’ families, farm loan waiver, upgrading tribal hamlets as gram panchayats and pensions for the needy persons would be discussed.
“In all probability, compensation to the families of martyrs will be his priority,” official sources told The Hindu on Friday. Mr. Rao in the manifesto had promised Rs. 10 lakh, employment and cultivable agriculture land to the members of the martyrs’ families. Similarly, the old-age and widow pensions would be enhanced to Rs. 1,000 while the pension for disabled would be Rs. 1,500 per month. For the tribals, 12 per cent reservation besides gram panchayat status for hamlets had been promised. For the benefit of farmers, he had promised Rs 1-lakh loan waiver, eight-hour quality power supply, abolition of surcharge of pump sets and Telangana as a seed-producing State. A senior official said that Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao will have a hectic day on June 2 as he plans to pay tributes at the martyrs’ memorial at Gun Park before proceeding to Raj Bhavan for the swearing-in ceremony. Soon after, he would rush to Parade grounds to attend Telangana State Formation Day fete, his maiden programme as Chief Minister. From there, he would enter Secretariat and formally occupy the Chief Minister’s chamber in C Block and later address the Cabinet meeting. It is understood that Mr. Rao has instructed bureaucrats to prepare vision documents for each department. Simultaneously, he wants each department to come up with short and long-term documents for development. “For the present financial year, he wants officials to prepare a short-term document and work on long-term document for the next five years of governance. All his actions and decisions will be in tune with the promises made in the election manifesto,” sources said.
