KCR wants one more month to settle down

• Need to change style of governance practiced by previous govts; Process has already started
  
• He was speaking at a workshop of ministers and district collectors
  
• He wants to give another lease of life to Panchayati Raj
  
• Programmes of the previous govt need to be relooked
  
• Collectors asked to break all housing scandals
  
• Need to decongest Hyderabad, to go for a rapid rail system
  
• Vows to waive farm loans up to Rs 1 lakh as promised

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday said that it would take at least another one month for the new government to settle down and come to grips with the administration.

He said he did not want to do anything in a hurry or follow the routine style of governance practised by the previous governments in United Andhra Pradesh. Telangana needs to be re-invented, reoriented and for that systematic planning for overall development was necessary. This process, he said, would take another one month. “Heavens won’t fall, we can afford to wait for another 30 days,” he said.

Addressing a high-level workshop attended by his Cabinet colleagues, top bureaucrats, heads of departments, district Collectors and other officials, at Marri Chenna Reddy Human Resources Development Institute, KCR asked department heads and district collectors to involve elected representatives’ right from village level to MLAs and MPs in preparation of reports based on specific requirements of the district so that the development could be a focused one.

He laid emphasis on giving a new lease of life to Panchayat Raj system, which had become defunct and paralysed. The concept of ‘community development’ should be encouraged which was why we want to involve all stake holders in preparation of the road-map, he said.

Rao noted that present government schemes and programmes were brought in the context of unified Andhra Pradesh State, which now needed to be relooked and changed according to the needs of the Telangana State. Hence he was willing to wait for another two or three months before the real administration of the new state begins. KCR reiterated that the crop loan waivers up to Rs 1 lakh would be waivered, certainly. Further, he said that a final decision to this extent would be taken up in the next cabinet meeting. He warned all those involved in the illegal constructions saying that they would be caged without any sort of compromise.

He said that the housing scheme would be taken up seriously without letting the misuse or diversion of funds allotted for the same. Disclosing that Rs 235 crore was found to have been misappropriated in the weaker sections' housing scheme in Telangana, Rao directed district Collectors to conduct a thorough inquiry into the scheme to "break all housing scandals".

If the housing programme continued like this, thousands of crores of public money would go down the drain. All housing scandals needed to be broken and the guilty should be sent to jail. The District Collectors should act tough in this regard, he added.

Rao emphasised the need to decongest Hyderabad. “We need a rapid rail system to connect the satellite towns and bring people to Hyderabad, say in 21 minutes.
An additional Outer Ring Road, 100-km away from the existing ORR, also should be developed. All industrial development should be away from the ORR, he said.