KCR focusses on farm sector, development success at Independence Day fete

HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao (KCR) made several key announcements and outlined the plans of his BRS Government while delivering his Independence Day speech. KCR hoisted the National Flag at the Golconda Fort on the occasion of 77th Independence Day on Tuesday. Addressing the gathering, KCR listed out achievements of various State Government initiatives in the field of agriculture and enlisted targets for welfare schemes and broad plan for expansion of Metro Rail in Hyderabad.

2 BHK Houses

In his speech, KCR said that the Telangana Government was building double bedroom houses for the poor where they were not needed to pay even a single rupee to claim ownership. "The residence constructed by governments for the poor in the past was only a narrow room. In contrast, the BRS Government is building houses with two bedrooms and handing them over free of charge to ensure dignity of the poor," he said. "The Government has constucted one lakh double bedroom houses for the poor in Hyderabad which are ready to be inaugurated. The Government is implementing a scheme called Grihalakshmi too for the poor who own land but cannot build a house," he added.

Flourishing agricultural sector

Speaking about how the agricultural sector in the State was minting fortunes, KCR said that Telangana had set an example for the country as a State where farmer welfare was flourishing. He said that the BRS government had taken various measures to lift Telangana out of the agricultural crisis created by the Centre.

"After coming to power, the BRS Government waived off crop loans. During the last nine-and-a-half years, about Rs 37,000 crore of crop loans have been waived off for the farmers in two phases. There is no other government in the country that has made its farmers debt free in this manner," KCR noted.

The Chief Minister added that the Telangana government had created a golden era in the irrigation sector through the construction of Mission Kakatiya and huge lifting projects like Kaleshwaram. "With 24 hours free electricity, timely supply of fertilisers, seeds, farmer's bond, farmer insurance, crop loan waiver, agriculture has been wonderfully stabilised and an unprecedented phase has been launched in the history of the sector in India," he said.

The Chief Minister added that Telangana, which was at the 15th position in rice production, was now competing against Punjab for the first position in the country in that category.

Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project

Speaking about the recent approval for the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation (PRLI) Project, KCR said, "The Government has started the construction of the PRLI to alleviate the hardships of farmers of Ranga Reddy district along with Palamuru, which suffered a lot. The belt always saw lot of labourers migrating to other places. Opposition leaders have exposed their perverse mentality by filing cases in green tribunals to block this wonderful project, which will irrigate 12 lakh acres and provide drinking water to 1,200 villages. They are ready to exploit the people of Palamuru and Ranga Reddy districts for their petty political interests. However, the continued efforts of the BRS Government, with the belief that justice will always prevail, have borne fruit. The cases filed by the opposition have been dismissed. I am happy to inform you that environmental clearances have recently been obtained for the construction of the project."

Welfare of tribals

During his speech KCR said that the Telangana Government had fulfilled the long-standing aspiration of tribals coinciding with the decade long celebrations of Telangana. Showing a permanent solution to the podu lands problem, he said that 1.50 lakh adivasis and tribals had acquired ownership rights over 4 lakh acres of podu lands. "By applying the Rythu Bandhu scheme to all of them, they have been given crop investment assistance and have been freed from the cases registered in the agitation for waste lands," he said.

Welfare of Govt employees

KCR also announced that he would give the best pay revision to all Government employees soon. The Chief Minister made it clear that Telangana was far ahead of other states in terms of welfare of State Government employees. "I am happy to announce that Telangana employees are the highest paid workers in the country today. As soon as the State came into existence, special increment was given to Government employees. So far we have provided 73 per cent fitment through two PRCs. The Telangana Government has been credited with providing better pay to its employees even at a time when the Covid-19 boom had a severe impact on the economy. For the first time in history, along with Government employees, the wage hike has also been applied to contract and outsourced staff. I myself announced in the recent Legislative session that the new PRC will be appointed soon. The salaries of employees will be increased and the interim allowance will be paid till then," KCR said.

"The Singareni Colleries has increased its turnover from Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 33,000 crore. I am very happy to inform that Rs 1,000 crore is going to be distributed to the Singareni workers this time as a bonus for Dussehra and Diwali," he added.

Vision for Hyderabad

KCR said that the BRS Government had decided to expand metro rail to all corners of Hyderabad. The Chief Minister said that the Government was aiming to complete these works in the next three to four years.

"The Strategic Roads Development Plan (SRDP) is being implemented at a cost of Rs 67,149 crore. Development of 42 key roads, flyovers, underpasses and overbridges have been undertaken under SRDP. Most of these have been completed and are available to the public. The Government has also completed the construction of 22 link roads at a cost of Rs 275 crore. It has also decided to expand the metro rail to all four directions of the Hyderabad metropolis to address the growing public transportation needs. For this the State has planned to expand the metro rail to connect all the junctions around ORR and also ensure connectivity to the to the airport. This will be constructed at a cost of more than Rs 69,000 crore. The goal is to complete these structures in the next three to four years. The metro facility will be extended to 415 kilometers in Hyderabad with these new proposals," KCR concluded.x`x