Telangana government ends 2015 with frequent ‘U turns’

Hyderabad: The newly-formed Telangana State completed its first full calendar year in 2015 and so did the TRS government headed by Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao.

With Mr Rao himself claiming that he had spent the entire year planning the schemes and programmes for the development of Telangana, he is looking forward to execute his plans from 2016.

Though providing uninterrupted power supply to all sectors in state was the major achievement of Mr Rao in 2015, it got marred due to his frequent “U-turns” on several issues. which eventually had to be taken back after they turned out to be either controversial or impractical.

In a hurry to leave his mark as first CM of Telangana State, Mr Rao made several announcements like shifting of Secretariat to premises of Chest Hospital in Erragadda and shifting Chest Hospital from Erragadda to Vikarabad. However, both could not be grounded later. Not doing proper ground work and not seeking opinion and feedback from people concerned are being cited for taking "U-turns" later.

Even after Erragadda Secretariat proposal failed, Mr Rao came up with another proposal to shift Secretariat to Bison Polo Ground in Secunderabad. But the union defence ministry to which the land belongs refused to part with the land despite repeated requests from the CM.

Though the existing Secretariat is centrally located on sprawling premises and covenient to all, the 'vastu defect' reason being cited by Mr Rao for its shifting drew flak from all quarters.

This apart, Mr Rao announced to empty the Hussain Sagar lake by summer this year, clean it up and fill it with fresh water during rainy season. He said the government will not allow immersion of Ganesh idols from 2015 and construct a new lake called "Vinayaka Sagar" in Indira Park for immersion of idols. Both attempts were made to empty Hussain Sagar lake, it was stopped midway as it invited legal and pollution related problems. Even the Vinayaka Sagar plan was rolled out after officials submitted that the roads leading to Indira Park would not support heavy vehicular and people traffic on the day of immersion.

The major U-turn of 2015 was of Metro Rail realignment. After sitting for entire year to realign Metro route in front of Legislative Assembly and Sultan Bazaar to save T-Martyrs Memorial and heritage market and halting the works, he took turn recently and okayed original proposal, which delayed Metro project.

The other major U-turns of KCR in 2015include  taking over some part of vacant Osmania University lands to build 2BHK houses for poor, shifting of Osmania General Hospital and introduction of cheap liquor.

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