Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) chief Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) has been sworn in as the chief minister of the newly-carved State of Telangana by governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad. Eleven others were also sworn in as Cabinet ministers by Narasimhan, who administered them oath of office and secrecy. The Cabinet includes Rao’s son KT Rama Rao and nephew T Harish Rao. Nine other cabinet ministers who took oath of office are Mohammed Mahmood Ali, T Rajaiah, Nayani Narasimha Reddy, Eatela Rajender, Pocharam Srinivasa Reddy, T Padma Rao, P Mahender Reddy, Jogu Ramanna and G Jagadish Reddy. The TRS won 63 of the 119 seats in the newly-formed Telangana Assembly.
Early this morning, Governor of undivided Andhra Pradesh Narasimhan had taken oath as the Governor of Telangana, and President’s Rule was revoked in the new State.
With a Telugu-speaking State breaking into two, after some Hindi- and Bengali-speaking States chose to exist separately, the organisation of States on the basis of language clearly looks like a flawed idea as the basis is failing to hold the people of a previously demarcated area together.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the formation of Telangana and promised complete central support to help take the state to newer heights of progress. He congratulated Rao on becoming the first CM of the 29th state and expressed best wishes to its people. “India gets a new state! We welcome Telangana as our 29th state. Telangana will add strength to our development journey in the coming years,” he tweeted.
The bifurcation process had started on 9 December 2009, when the then UPA Government promised KCR, who was at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences at Hyderabad after undertaking an indefinite fast, that the process of creating a separate state had been set in motion. The Bharatiya Janata Party has always been supportive of the idea of carving this new State out, as it is, in principle, in favour of smaller States that it considers administratively more feasible.
Last night amid celebrations in the whole of the new State, the TRS played “Jaya Jayahe Telangana”, written by renowned lyricist Ande Sri and chosen as the Telangana State song by party chief KCR, at 150 odd places across Hyderabad during the midnight celebrations. The TRS had also arranged for distribution of sweets and packets of Hyderabadi biriyani to the tens of thousands who flooded the roads at night. Charminar, Golconda Fort and several public buildings including the Legislative Assembly remain illuminated through the night.
The TRS manifesto promised Rs 10 lakh, employment and cultivable agriculture land to the members of the families who lost their members in the struggle for Telangana, waiving farm loans upto Rs 1 lakh, providing 12% reservation for tribals, granting panchayat status for tribal hamlets and enhancing pensions for the old, widows and infirm.
