The Telangana Congress on Sunday questioned the delay in forming the state cabinet by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Congress leader and Bhupalpalle MLA Gandra Venkataramana Reddy pointed out that it had been 40 days since the results of the election were announced in December, but the cabinet was yet to be formed.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had swept the polls held on December 7, winning 88 out of the 119-seat Assembly in the state. The Congress leader demanded that the cabinet expansion take place soon, and pointed out that there was barely a month or two remaining, before the model code of conduct would be imposed in the state again, for the Lok Sabha elections. He also said it was affecting the everyday functioning of the state government.
Two days after winning the polls, KCR had taken the oath as Chief Minister. Mahmood Ali was made the Home Minister of the state and took oath on the same day. However, there has been no further announcements from the Chief Minister on extending his cabinet.
Gandra Venkatramana Reddy also hit out at Governor E S L Narasimhan's speech and said it was highly political in nature and was only praising the TRS. "There was no clarity on many things that were promised by the ruling party," the Congress leader said.
Addressing the joint session of both Houses of the state legislature, the Governor Narasimhan on Saturday said that Telangana had been progressing in every arena and positioning itself as a leading state in the country, due to the effective governance under the leadership of K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
"This was reflected clearly in the electorate again reposing confidence overwhelmingly and returning the existing government to power with an emphatic majority in the recently concluded elections," he said.
Narasimhan pointed out that the people of Telangana achieved a separate state for themselves in 2014 after six decades of relentless struggle. The government straightaway took up the process of reconstruction, according top priority to welfare of the poor.
He told the legislators that Telangana achieved one of the highest growth rates in the country. During the first four years from 2014-2018, the state achieved 17.17 percent compound annual revenue growth rate and during the current 2018-19 financial year, the growth rate so far stands at 29.93 percent.
IANS inputs