Countdown has begun for the formal inauguration of Telangana, the 29th State of India. As the clock strikes midnight entering June 2, Hyderabad and nine other districts of the region will erupt in a grand celebration marking the opening of a new chapter in Telangana’s history as the people will realise their six decades old dream and the region will regain its lost statehood. In 1956, Telangana State had ceased to exist when it was merged with Andhra and Rayalaseema regions to create Andhra Pradesh.
The picturesque Tank Bund on Hussain Sagar in the heart of the city, which was witness to “Million March”, one of the biggest protests during the struggle, will now be the venue of massive fireworks at midnight on Sunday, marking the beginning of festivities, celebrations and ceremonies on the historic occasion. The fireworks will light up the night sky as thousands of people will gather to watch the spectacle. The folk artistes from the entire region will also perform to regale the crowd at 100 different places in Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
Hyderabad city has been pained pink, the official color of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), the regional party which spearheaded the 14-year-long agitation and is going to form the first Government of Telangana after winning the recent elections.
Pink coloured festoons, flags, banners, balloons and the cutouts of its leader K Chandrasekhar Rao have flooded the roads, important traffic junctions and every inch of available space.
The second point of celebrations throughout the night on Tuesday will be the Telangana Martyrs Memorial opposite the State Assembly building where KCR will lead the people of Telangana in paying homage to the hundreds who laid down their lives for the cause of the separate State. later he will be sworn in as the first Chief Minister along with his Cabinet. Official Telangana Formation Day function will be held at Secunderabad Parade Ground where the Chief Minister will hoist the national flag and take salute in the presence of the top officials of the State. later he will go to Secretariat and take charge at auspicious time around 12.15 pm and hold his first Cabinet meeting.
KCR is also scheduled to sign five important files fulfilling his five key election promises. The first decision will be to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to every family whose member had committed suicide for Telangana State. Another key decision will be waiving the loan of farmers up to Rs 100,000.
But the swearing-in ceremony of KCR and his Cabinet is likely to be low profile compared to the show his Andhra Pradesh counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu will be organising for his swearing-in at Guntur. While Naidu has invited the Prime Minister and his political ally Narendra Modi and the top BJP leaders and non-Congress Chief Ministers to the oath taking on June 8, KCR has not.
However, all formalities of the division of the State, including the distribution of the employees, have not yet been completed forcing Chief Secretary PK Mohanty to order the State Secretariat employees to come to work even on Sunday.
There was confusion among the employees on the question of who was going to serve which State. Chief Secretary Mohanty was issuing “order to serve” to the employees to continue in their present position as a provisional arrangement for three months as dividing the employees will take some more time.
The decision, which has left the employees tense, will result in 4,000 employees from Telangana serving Andhra Government and 5,000 Andhra employees serving Telangana Government, a situation they find hard to accept.
In a reflection of growing regional tension among employees, rival groups came face-to-face in the State Secretariat to claim control over the office and other assets of the AP Secretariat Employees’ Association. Tension started when Telangana employees held their meeting in the building and put up their board and portrait of K Chandrasekhar Rao. The building is in the area of the Secretariat allotted to the AP Government.
The politicos were also finding themselves in a similar quandary as Rajya Sabha members have also been divided through a draw of lots. While four Rajya Sabha members from Telangana have been allotted to Andhra, two Andhra members were allotted to Telangana. Under this distribution, two strong votaries of united Andhra Pradesh KVP Ramachandra Rao and CM Ramesh have been allotted to Telangana while TRS secretary general and Rajya Sabha member from Telangana will be representing Andhra Pradesh.
However, the process of dividing the Government buildings between the two States has been completed. While the Telangana Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) will be in C Block, AP CM will have his office in l Block. Both the Governments have got four blocks each.
The new building of the State Assembly has been allotted to Telangana and old building will be used by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. While Telangana legislative Council has been allotted the historic Jubilee Hall, the adjacent Council Hall will be used by Andhra Pradesh Council.
Telangana Chief Minister will have his camp office and official residence in Kuindan Bagh and AP CM will be using lake View Guest House as his camp office. Ministers Quarters and MlAs Quarters have also been divided between the two States.
In an indication of the teething problems and the challenges the two States will face in the days to come, Telangana was already up in arms against the Polavaram project for which the Centre has transferred 205 villages of Telangana to Andhra. TRS, which had called a general strike on Thursday, has vowed to wage a legal battle against the transfer of its area and oppose the present design of Telangana.
ESl Narasimhan, who will take oath as the Governor of Telangana on June 2 before administering the same to KCR, said that the Chief Ministers of the two States should sit together and solve any problem amicably.
Talking to the media at Raj Bhavan, the Governor said that as power consumption was high in Telangana, more power be allotted to it. As the use of irrigation sources was more in Andhra, less power was allocated to it.
He expressed his satisfaction over the way the problem of Telangana was solved and the process of division completed. “The situation was handled in Telangana without a single incident of firing in the four-year period,” he said.