Republic Day Speech of the Hon'ble Governor of Telangana Dr. (Smt
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Republic Day Speech of the Hon’ble Governor of Telangana Dr. (Smt.) Tamilisai Soundararajan on January 26, 2021 I extend my warm greetings to all the people of Telangana state on the occasion of 72nd Republic Day celebrations. It is a proud moment for all of us that the Telangana state by implementing a plethora of innovative, unique and people- oriented schemes and programs within a short span of time has carved a niche for itself in the history of the country. Since the responsibility of governing the state is entrusted to a leader, i.e., the Honourable Chief Minister, who happened to lead the movement for the separate statehood for Telangana, it stood first and unique in the country in several sectors due to the planned and systematic efforts, during the past six and half years and has been providing inspiration to other states to emulate Telangana. COVID-Vaccination The entire year 2020 went through the difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We started the year 2021 with lot of optimism as the vaccination for COVID-19 on priority has been started and is being administered on priority basis. Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modiji’s visit to Bharat Biotech International Limited in Hyderabad to review the development of indigenous COVID-19 vaccine “Covaxin” gave great impetus to quicken the process. 1 With the combined and well-coordinated efforts of the Government of India and the State Government, the spread of virus was effectively contained. By strict implementation of the lockdown, and by offering the best medical treatment to the affected, the mortality rate in the state has been brought down to the lowest possible. A record number of above 76 lakh tests were conducted across the state by setting up the centers even at the mandal level. In the state 2 lakh tests were conducted for every 10 lakh population, as against national average of 1.39 lakh tests. Case fatality rate in the state is 0.54 percent as against national rate of 1.4 percent. The recovery rate in the state is 98.24 percent as against national rate of 96.8 percent. Thus, the state has been performing well in containing ill-effects of COVID-19. From the bottom of my heart, I salute all the frontline warriors, like Medical and Health department staff, police personnel, sanitation workers, journalists, other employees, and volunteers, who stood in the forefront in the fight against the COVID pandemic. The state government distributed 12 kgs. of rice and extended a financial help of ₹1,500 per month to each poor family who lost their livelihoods during the lockdown. Free meals were served through Annapurna canteens. Special trains were arranged for the migrant workers to travel to their native places. The state government had incurred a huge revenue loss of ₹52,000 crore due to the disruption of activities caused by the pandemic. Despite the steep fall in the revenue, the state 2 government continued all its welfare and social security schemes for the benefit of the poor. Palle Pragathi Translating separate statehood movement leaders’ vision into reality, the living standards of the people in Telangana state have tremendously improved due to the creation of basic infrastructure facilities in all villages. The Palle Pragathi program transformed the villages in the state as role models in the country. Now 12,765 gram panchayats have been provided tractors with tankers and trolleys as against 84 gram panchayats that had their own tractors at the time of formation of the state. Now, the villages in the state wore a festive look with clean and green surroundings. As a part of greenery initiatives, a record 91 percent of the saplings planted have survived in rural areas. Each village in the state has one plant nursery. The state will have 19,470 village Prakruti Vanalu. Land is identified at 19,027 places and saplings were planted at 15,646 places. People voluntarily cleared all the unwanted vegetation, closed the unused open wells, bore wells, and sewerage ponds through Shramadaan in Palle Pragathi. Construction of dump yards is going on at 12,736 places and 91 percent of the works are completed. At 9,023 dumping yards, compost facilities are being created. 3 In order to avoid difficulty of performing the last rites of loved ones, the state government decided to construct one Vaikunta Dhamam at every village. The state government took special interest for constructing one Rythu Vedika at every cluster to facilitate the farmers to sit and deliberate farm related issues. The construction of 2,580 Rythu Vedikas out of the targeted 2,601 has been completed. The state government has also decided to create ‘Drying Platforms’ at 93,875 places in the state in the first phase, which will help the farmers to dry and thresh their produce. Earlier gram panchayats were unable to pay their electricity bills on time resulting in stoppage of power supply to the villages. With the initiatives taken up by the state government, now gram panchayats are able to pay their electricity bills in time. The state government is releasing ₹308 crore every month to the gram panchayats, despite financial crunch, due to COVID pandemic. This is enabling the gram panchayats to continue their developmental works. Owing to cleanliness, there is a drastic decline in incidence of dengue this year. The central government conferred Swachh Survekshan award on the state as all the villages have been declared open defecation-free. I appreciate all those who made it possible. I congratulate Panchayat Raj department officials, sarpanches, ward members, panchayat secretaries and all those who took part in this endeavour. 4 Pattana Pragathi Rapid urbanization is taking place in the state after its formation. The urban areas are being transformed into pollution- free better living places. The state government is releasing ₹148 crore every year to urban areas apart from release of additional funds to the GHMC and other municipal corporations. There are 2,802 sanitation vehicles in the urban areas in the state. 2,004 more are being arranged now. With this, 4,806 sanitation vehicles would be made available. Dump yards are being constructed in all the urban areas. 1,018 plant nurseries in urban areas and 500 under GHMC are already set up. The state government wants to arrange Vaikunta Dhamams in all the urban areas at the rate of one Vaikunta Dhamam for every one lakh population. In 116 urban areas, veg and non-veg integrated markets are being established. The state government enacted the Telangana State Building Permission Approval and Self Certification System (TS- bPASS) Act, 2020 to ease the permission procedure for building construction in urban areas. Now the applicants through self- declaration in a highly transparent, time-bound and corruption- free manner are obtaining permissions. In all urban areas, government is supplying drinking water at free of cost up to 20,000 liters per every household per month. This has enabled about 97 percent of the urban population to access free drinking water facility. 5 Administrative Reforms The state government has brought in several administrative reforms aiming at heralding transparent, accountable, and corruption-free good governance. New Panchayat Raj, Revenue and Municipalities Acts were brought in. Number of districts was increased from 10 to 33, revenue divisions from 43 to 74, mandals from 459 to 593, municipal corporations from 6 to 13, gram panchayats from 8,690 to 12,765. With this the administrative units are brought to the reach of common man, thus avoiding travelling long distances and paving the way for effective implementation of the government schemes. Dharani Portal I am happy to announce that the revolutionary reforms brought in by the state government to give more authenticity on the land ownership, to have more clarity in the land transactions are yielding good results. The Dharani Portal brought in to maintain the land records is highly successful. The farmers are able to sell and buy the agriculture lands within minutes in a hassle-free manner. Agriculture The state government is taking plan-based measures to bailout agriculture sector from the crisis faced before formation of the state. The agriculture policies and programs launched by the state government have earned international acclaim. The state government has undertaken construction of major irrigation projects to overcome the lack of irrigational facilities faced by farmers for decades together. Irrigation facilities have 6 been tremendously improved, thanks to Kaleshwaram project, the largest multistage lift irrigation project in the world. The works of Palamuru-Rangareddy, Sitarama, Devadula projects are being taken up at faster pace. Works on the pending projects in the combined Mahabubnagar, Warangal, Adilabad, Nalgonda, Khammam and other districts are completed and water is supplied to 16 lakh acres. Through Mission Kakatiya program, all the tanks in the state are revived. As a result, there is 4-meter increase in the ground water level. Since farmers are given 24-hour free uninterrupted power supply, lands under 24 lakh pump sets are being cultivated and the yield is bountiful. Owing to all these, now paddy is cultivated in 1.04 crore acres as against 35 lakh acres at the time of formation of the state. With the vast increase in the area of cultivation, Telangana state has become Annapurna, Rice Bowl of the country. The state government purchased agriculture produce by setting up of procurement centres at the village level thus saving the farmers from incurring losses due the closure of markets during the lockdown. During the last rabi season, the Food Corporation of India had procured 1.15 crore tons of paddy all over the country and out of this Telangana state alone accounted for a massive 64 lakh tons which is 55 percent of the total procurement of the FCI.