Guv lauds T’gana as a role model in speech after 2 yrs

The governor was addressing the joint meeting of the state legislative assembly and council on the first day of the budget session.

Stating that Telangana has been progressing at a rapid pace in various sectors, Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan on Friday asserted that the state had become a role model for the entire country despite facing innumerable challenges in the last nine years.

Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan hailed Telangana for not only emerging as a strong state financially over the last few years, but also one of the top performers in the country in welfare and development. (HT Photo)

The governor was addressing the joint meeting of the state legislative assembly and council on the first day of the budget session. It was Tamilisai’s first speech in the state legislature after the Telangana government did away with the customary Governor’s address in the last 2022 Budget session following a confrontation with her.

In her speech on Friday, the Governor hailed Telangana for not only emerging as a strong state financially over the last few years, but also one of the top performers in the country in welfare and development. “The growth rate of several sectors of the economy in 2022-23, has doubled since the state formation, due to focus on capital expenditure. I wholeheartedly congratulate the government for this spectacular progress,” she said.

She added that the total revenue receipts of the state, which were a mere ₹62,000 crore in 2014-15, increased to ₹1,84,000 crore by 2021-22. Further, the per capita income of the State which was ₹1,24,104 in 2014-15, jumped to ₹3,17,115 by 2022-23, she said.

The speech comes a year after the Telangana government cancelled the customary governor’s address in the last budget session held in March 2022, saying that it was not the first session of the year, but only a continuation of the winter session that was adjourned sine die on October 7, 2021.

This year, too, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi government decided to go ahead with the Budget session without the Governor’s address, stating that it was only the fourth meeting of the eighth session of the legislature in October, 2021. However, the state government later agreed to allow the Governor’s address, after Tamilisai refused to clear the file pertaining to the Budget presentation.

The government moved a lunch motion petition in the state high court on Monday questioning the governor’s move, but withdrew the same within an hour on the advice of the court. While the government agreed for the governor’s address, the latter cleared the file on the budget proposals.

On Friday, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao received the governor with a bouquet at the assembly and led her into the House, where she addressed the joint meeting of the legislative assembly and council.

During her address, the Governor also listed several measures that helped Telangana achieve progress in various sectors. Due to investor-friendly initiatives like TS-iPASS, Telangana has been able to attract investments worth ₹3.31 lakh crore in Information Technology and other sectors. The IT sector alone has shown an employment growth rate of 140%, she said.

She said initiatives like Rythu Bandhu, Rythu Bima and free power supply had transformed the state’s agriculture sector, which contributed to the 18.2% growth of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The area under cultivation in Telangana had gone up to 73.33 lakh acres from 20 lakh acres in 2014-15.

The Governor added that the installed capacity of Telangana power plants have increased from 7,778 MW to 18,453 MW within the last eight and half years. Similarly, the per capita power consumption has gone up from 1,356 units in 2014-15 to 2,126 units in 2021-22, indicating the state’s progress. She also lauded the Dalit Bandhu scheme aimed at achieving a comprehensive development and economic empowerment of the Dalit community. She said the scheme was inspired by the efforts of Dr B R Ambedkar.

She added that the various initiatives being taken by the Telangana government in the education and health care sectors and the welfare schemes being implemented for SCs, OBCs and minorities.