The summer of 2024 was a busy time in India’s youngest state. Telangana was gearing up for Formation Day celebrations on June 2, and Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had commissioned a new anthem to commemorate a decade of the state’s existence: Jaya Jaya Hey Telangana, written by the beloved poet-lyricist Ande Sri and composed by Academy Award-winner M.M. Keeravani. Reddy paid tributes to Telangana Movement martyrs at Gun Park and hoisted the national flag at Parade Grounds, Secunderabad. Addressing a massive gathering, Reddy waxed eloquent about how “freedom is very much part of the Telangana way of life… Our philosophy is to spread love and question domination. We can endure hunger, but we will not tolerate losing our freedom. Telangana will not turn a blind eye if democracy is to be destroyed in the guise of welfare.”
For the people
A first-generation politician, the 55-year-old Reddy is the first Congress Chief Minister of Telangana and has breathed new life into the party’s presence in the state. In his first year in office, he has established himself as a master rhetorician and a veritable strongman. It is common knowledge that he puts in 18-hour days and is famously approachable, with his residence at Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Praja Bhavan (formerly Pragathi Bhavan) being open to the public. This is a man who proactively solicits feedback and counsel to improve governance in a model he calls ‘Praja Palana’, which translates to “people’s governance”.
Indeed, Reddy’s first year in office has been marked by concerted efforts to achieve social justice and provide equal opportunities to the diverse Telangana populace. These aspirations have been articulated in the wake of the ten-year rule of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (earlier the Telangana Rashtra Samithi), headed by K. Chandrashekhar Rao — a period Reddy has described as one of destruction: economic, social, and cultural.
Financial aid for the vulnerable
Reddy has inherited debts amounting to `7 lakh crore from his predecessor. He has aggressively lobbied for relief through restructuring of the state’s loans and has mounted pressure on the Centre to give Telangana its fair share of central endowments. His government cracked down on Telangana’s chronic unemployment problem and filled 30,000 posts within three months of being elected. As many as 55,000 government jobs have been created. In the sizable agri-reliant rural belt, farmers have received deposits amounting to `7,500 crore, benefitting 69 lakh individuals. Recently, a compensation of `10,000 per acre was announced to help farmers through lean periods caused by crop damage from untimely rains. A mammoth `18,000 crore in farm loans has been waived — an unprecedented sum.
Telangana farmers have obtained another crucial benefit: uninterrupted power supply, a blessing for farm productivity. This is a convenience that extends to the general citizenry. The state has supplied a record-breaking 298.19 million units of power as of March 2024, and low-income families receive 200 units of free electricity per month. In another move to ramp up state infrastructure and diminish the social inequity gap, Reddy’s Indiramma housing scheme has allocated `22,500 crore to build 4,50,000 houses for the poor. Under the scheme, households which own plots receive `5 lakh for construction, and those that don’t are provided land and the same building allowance.
Supporting women and minorities
Reddy has also identified and addressed gender-based inequity. Already, `3,500 crore has been spent under the Mahalakshmi scheme to facilitate free bus travel for women and transpeople and to provide cooking gas cylinders at a subsidised price of `500 to 42 lakh women. Days ago, he announced plans to ease 1 crore women out of poverty, involving them in entrepreneurship and business through self-help groups.
Reddy’s groundbreaking caste survey, launched in June 2024, was designed to deliver social justice and aims to determine demographics in depth. The questionnaire carries prompts on the political leanings, and the economic and social status of Telangana residents, as well as challenges peculiar to groups. The survey is in its final stages.
Restyling cities
Reddy’s government is also going the extra green mile. A ‘Green Telangana – 2050 Master Plan’ focuses on three zones: urban, suburban, and rural. Experts are hard at work blueprinting a sustainable development scheme based on the region’s infrastructure needs. The transformation of the capital, Hyderabad, is one of Reddy’s pet projects, with a `1,000-crore budget allotted to spruce up the Musi riverfront, meet the irrigation needs of the Rangareddy and Nalgonda regions, and generate jobs and tourism revenue in Hyderabad. The Hyderabad Metro Rail is expanding, and a major Regional Ring Road is being completed. One hundred and fifty kilometres away, the second capital, Warangal, is also getting a facelift, with big-ticket infrastructure building underway.
Taking Telangana to the world
Despite his soaring popularity, Reddy’s detractors have found reasons to criticise him, among which are his frequent trips to New Delhi. Reddy has clarified that these visits are “to get funds approved for Telangana”. Meanwhile, he has travelled to the United States and South Korea, meeting with global investors and facilitating a robust fund flow into the state, amounting to `31,532 crore and representing over 30,000 jobs. Early in 2024, he secured another `40,232 crore in investments for Telangana on a whirlwind three-day trip to Davos, Switzerland, having liaised with over 200 major corporations and business leaders.
The data throws up a clear finding: Telangana is rising, and Anumula Revanth Reddy is the architect of a vision coming slowly but surely to fruition. The ambitious target of the state evolving into a $1 trillion GDP economy by 2035 might yet be a dream, but as the Telangana chief said in a leadership summit speech: “No dream is too big for New India.”
