This article is a rebuttal to the piece written on MyIndMakers by Venkat Gandhi earlier this week on the Two years of TRS, https://www.myind.net/two-years-trs-rule-telangana
It is 2 years since formation of Telangana and a good time to take stock of the performance of the TRS government. There is a tremendous feel good factor on the ground, which masks the underlying hard reality. Tall promises were made with little to show on the ground.
Here is sector and program wise assessment.
Agriculture:
Two successive years of deficit rainfall is having a huge impact on the farmers and the agriculture economy. 2015-16 has registered -10.3% growth in agriculture economy. There is a significant rise in the numbers of suicides of farmers. Drought has triggered large scale selling of cattle and migration of over 14L people from the districts of Telangana. NREGA is unsuccessful in checking the migration and Telangana government itself is found wanting in the mitigation measures.
Economy
2015-16 Telangana witnessed an impressive growth of 9.2% GSDP much above the national average despite a poor monsoon leading to a negative growth in agriculture. Deeper looks into the numbers say a slightly different story.
|
Telangana |
Andhra Pradesh |
||||
|
2015-16 Budgeted |
2015-16 Revised |
Deviation |
2015-16 Budgeted |
2015-16 Revised |
Deviation |
Budget |
1,15,686 |
1,00,162 |
-13.4% |
1,12,582 |
1,12,108 |
-0.7% |
GSDP Growth |
|
9.2% |
|
|
10.5% |
|
In Telangana Revised budget for 2015-16 shows that net receipts are -13.4% compared to the budget estimates. To see this in perspective Andhra Pradesh that is predominantly an agricultural economy showed higher GSDP growth despite a poor monsoon. Agricultural economy in AP witnessed 8.4% increase as against a negative increase in Telangana.
Power Sector
Telangana managed to keep power cuts relatively low during 2015-16, but power sector in Telangana has performed abysmally. Hydro power is dependent a lot on monsoon, but thermal power is very much in control of the state government.
|
Telangana |
Andhra Pradesh |
||||
|
2014-15 |
2015-16 |
2016-17 (till date) |
2014-15 |
2015-16 |
2016-17 (till date) |
PLF* |
80.31% |
73.31% |
69.85% |
80.71% |
78.43% |
86.41% |
Net Power |
19187 |
15415 |
2519 |
23612 |
21830 |
3195 |
*Plant Load Factor
Telangana, despite huge shortage in its power generation, continued to manage the demand/supply thanks to the efforts of Andhra Pradesh & Government of India’s efforts. APGENCO is consistently operating its thermal plants at a high PLF, and Telangana gets a higher share due to power sharing formula mentioned in the reorganization act. Andhra Pradesh also had participated in the gas sharing formula proposed by Govt of India to restart several of the gas based power generating plants, and in the process had to forego VAT on the gas purchases. Due to preexisting PPA with these plants Telangana gets a share of this power at the costs of VAT foregone by AP govt. Govt of India also has streamlined the coal sector leading to additional power being available on the grid. Telangana thus was able to purchase power in the open market to meet the shortfall, which wasn’t the case in the previous year.
New Power Projects:
As per KCR’s press conference on 9 Aug 2013, Singareni 1200MW expected in June 2014 and Bhoopalapally 600MW expected in Mar/Apr 2014. Since KCR came to power the deadline is revised to Bhoopalapally 600MW in mid-2015, Singareni Unit-1 in mid-2015 and Singareni unit-2 by end of 2015. Till date only 2 of these plants are synchronized to the grid, and none are declared COD.
Lower Jurala, which has 6 turbines of 40MW each for a total capacity of 240MW, was flooded 2014. 21 months later only 2 units are fully restored. Compare this with a similar incident at Srisailam, which is under APGNECO. All units were restored within 90 days of flooding. For a state, which has significant power deficit, new capacity addition is marred by heavy delays leading to huge expenses on power purchases and increase in fixed costs.
Water:
Irrigation projects:
There isn’t a single major/minor ongoing irrigation project completed in Telangana in the last 2 years. Redesigned projects on Godavari river extensively rely on waters from Pranahita/Indravati tributaries. Significant failure of the Telangana Govt is its inability/unwillingness to negotiate with Maharashtra on its fair share on water in upper Godavari. It virtually conceded to every demand of Maharashtra without getting anything in return. The cost of this capitulation will be paid by Telangana for generations to come, as water now needs to be pumped from much lower altitude downstream leading to higher operational costs every year.
Mission Kakatiya:
Rejuvenation of lakes/tanks and desilting them is a very good program taken up by several states in India. Telangana Govt had an ambitious program of rejuvenation 47905 lakes in 5 years. In phase-1 of this program G.O issued for 8206 lakes at cost of 2610cr. Works in majority of these lakes are supposed to be completed by end of summer (i.e. June 2015), but even as of May-2016 only 1869 lakes have their works fully completed, i.e. 22% of works and payments done to the tune of 36% of the budget. In phase-2 of this program 10599 lakes are identified and so far works have started in only 699 lakes and monsoon is just a couple of weeks away. For a flagship program of the TRS Govt, the execution of both phase-1/phase-2 is absolutely dismal, and that too when funds availability is not an issue.
Mission Bhagiratha:
Providing drinking water to each and every house in the entire state is a good program. No detailed schedule is available on internet to assess the completion against schedule. Going by the statements of KTR as reported in the media, this program too is suffering from delays.
Krishna Water:
Krishna River water sharing is the biggest contention between Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. For the season 2015-16 both states have agreed to an allocation of 299TMC for Telangana and 513TMC for Andhra Pradesh, and with the Krishna River Board monitoring & controlling release of water in various dams. Periodically KRB has been ordering release of water to both states from Srisailam/Nagarjuna Sagar reservoirs, and Namaste Telangana, a TRS mouthpiece, has been publishing several articles that Telangana has been getting a raw deal. Even though Telangana has been claiming unfair allocation, none of tribunals or boards ever supported their contention, which fundamentally begs the question has TRS been fooling people of Telangana all along?
Double Bedroom Scheme:
TRS manifesto talked of double bedroom independent house in 125 Sq. Yds. plot for every one belonging to backward sections. It has ever since changed its position to 2-bedroom houses in high-raise buildings in urban areas. In the last 2 years only 377 double bedroom apartments have been constructed across Telangana. Even though KCR has announced his intent to construct 2L houses in 2016, closure of funding continues to be a challenge.
Mega Projects:
Pharma City, Film City, Solar Park at Mahbubnagar all these are suffering from land acquisition delays even after 2 years.
Land for Dalits:
TRS promised to allocate 3 acres of land for each eligible Dalit family. In 2 years hardly 2% people were covered in this scheme. Significant under performance.
Haritha Haram:
This program is announced with tall claims of largest greening project ever in the world. It was supposed to be a Guinness world record feat when completed. In the first year not even 30% of the target has been achieved, and 90% of the planted saplings died subsequently due to watering shortage. During the second year the program has been significantly scaled down, and the budget too is cut down to 15% of first year budget.
Governance
A significant number of impulsive announcements of various projects/ ideas/ schemes define KCR’s leadership. Subsequently, these were invariably rolled back or conveniently forgotten. Some of the notable ones are:
- FAST[h1]
- Secretariat Relocation
- Osmania Hospital Demolition & Reconstruction
- Husain Sagar Cleaning - Draining & Refilling with fresh water
- Skyscrapers along Husain Sagar
- Metro Realignment to avoid damage to heritage structures
- Intensive Household Survey to identify beneficiaries of government welfare programs
Free Kg to PG Education:
Not started so far
Welfare Schemes:
Telangana has done well in welfare schemes where no execution is required, except for signing a cheque.
Comments