For the first time since the formation of Telangana, the administration is reaching out to common people, including in remote areas, and listening to their grievances.
The new Congress government has initiated the Praja Palana (people’s rule) scheme, which aims to take the government to the doorstep of the people. Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy announced the launch of the programme, spanning eight working days till January 6, under which officials will go to at least two villages every day to collect applications from the people in a prescribed format during gram sabhas. Through Praja Palana, the government hopes to learn of the grievances of the people and create a comprehensive database. This, it believes, will enable it to understand the needs of the people at the grass-roots level.
Through the scheme, the government also aims to ensure that the benefits of the welfare schemes promised by the Congress party as six guarantees in the run-up to the Assembly elections reach the last mile. The Congress had promised monthly financial assistance of ₹2,500 to women and LPG cylinders at ₹500 each under the Mahalakshmi scheme; ₹15,000 per acre per year to farmers including tenant farmers, a bonus of ₹500 for every quintal of paddy, and ₹12,000 to agriculture labourers every year under the Rythu Bharosa scheme; free power up to 200 units to all households under the Gruha Jyothi scheme; ₹5 lakh for the construction of houses to families below the poverty line owning small plots of land, and 250 square yard house sites to families involved in the Telangana movement under the Indiramma Indlu scheme; ₹4,000 monthly pension to senior citizens, single women and widows; and ₹10 lakh for medical treatment under the Rajiv Arogya Sri scheme.
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Two of the guarantees — free bus travel to women across the State and enhancement of health insurance coverage from ₹5 lakh to ₹10 lakh — has already been put in place. The government began the Praja Palana exercise so that it has a database to implement the remaining guarantees. The application forms issued for Praja Palana did not, however, mention Yuva Vikasam, which provides financial assistance to students to pursue their education.
The governments of the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh had programmes similar to Praja Palana. Former Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu conducted the people’s outreach programme, Janmabhoomi, for years, while Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy opened the doors of his camp office to people every morning to hear their grievances.
The former Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government was considered inaccessible to the people although it did implement many welfare programmes. There were allegations that former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was even inaccessible to his own Cabinet colleagues and senior officials let alone the people.
In contrast, Mr. Revanth Reddy ordered that the barricades in front of Pragathi Bhavan (the camp office-cum-residence of Mr. Rao) be removed. He also renamed the premises as Mahatma Jyotirao Phule Praja Bhavan.
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Official teams have been visiting at least two villages/wards a day since the launch of Praja Palana and collecting application forms from the gram sabhas, which are being conducted in all the villages in rural areas and wards in municipal areas across the State. The Chief Minister made the presence of officials and elected representatives mandatory as he believes that this will instil confidence among the people that their grievances will indeed be addressed.
The programme has drawn flak from the BRS, which says that Congress leaders are delaying the implementation of the party’s guarantees in the name of collecting data in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election for political gains.
Criticism apart, the Congress government is going to face a herculean task in fulfilling its guarantees given the financial constraints of the State. The promises have been made at a time when Telangana has little scope for raising resources. The chances of imposing new taxes/duties for augmenting resources also appear remote, at least in the near future.
With the debt servicing burden pegged at ₹22,407 crore of the total budget outlay of ₹2.9 lakh crore for the current financial year, it is unclear how the government plans to raise resources to fulfil its promises.
