Telangana is facing an acute shortage of IAS officers and deputation of 14 of them as observers for Bihar elections has added to its woes.
More recently, some more IAS officers have been deputed to attend mid-career training programme at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA) at Mussoorie in Uttarakhand which has made its cup of woes full.
According to a senior IAS officer who is holding three positions, the training programme to be held from October 11 to November 6 would increase the work burden on some officers further at a time when the implementation of government programmes is paced up in the second half of the financial year to reach the targets.
Stating that the State already has a shortage of about two-dozen IAS officers, he said it had become the norm to most of them to hold additional responsibilities since Telangana came into being on June 2 last year due to shortage of hands.
Of ration cards and State indifference
Ration card is still a distant dream for people in Telangana. Even a year after the formation of the State, the government has not distributed close to 90 lakh cards which will aid the general public in procuring benefits of the public distribution system.
While those with limited or no means are waiting, the State government is still stuck at the card printing stage. This, even as people are dependent on coupons to get PDS benefits.
As frustration is rising among those who are on the wait for white ration cards, the least the government could do is to speed up the distribution of cards right after printing completes.
Problem of surplus
In the background of Telangana government’s decision to implement the Food Security Act in a full fledged manner, the Centre recently allotted the full quota of rice to the State for public distribution. Without the State’s asking, the Centre also allotted to the State 8,500 tonnes of wheat per month for PDS though the demand was only 1,200 tonnes.
The State government has written to the Centre to withhold release of excess wheat and replenish the stock with rice so as to reduce the former’s financial burden on account of distribution of rice. The State’s monthly requirement of rice is 1.75 lakh tonnes but got only 1.03 lakh tonnes from the Centre for implementation of Food Security Act.
Online trade
portals say no
The move of Telangana government to generate tax revenue from e-commerce by amending the State legislation on Value Added Tax (VAT) met with severe resistance from some of the major portals in the business that were recently served notices.
The portals have written back to the government stating that they are not obliged to pay taxes at places of delivery of goods because the payments are already made at the first point of taxation in States where the bills are generated. It effectively meant that the taxes were paid when the transaction actually took place between the buyer and the seller.
It is immaterial where the goods were consumed, they contended.
The government apparently dropped the move seeing sense in the argument of portals, particularly in the backdrop of the court quashing entry tax proposed in the combined State.
Revenue from sale
of IMFL set to go up
The government has proposed another method to fill its coffers by increasing the business hours of shops and bars selling Indian Made Foreign Liquor.
The shops in Telangana are now open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and bars from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Extending the time by one hour for shops and two hours for bars is now actively considered by the government to scale up sales and earn tax revenue.
B. CHANDRASHEKHAR, NIKHILA HENRY, &
N. RAHUL
