Telangana Development Model main election plank for third term: K. Kavitha

Oxford, Oct 31 (PTI) The Telangana Model of inclusive development has been very prosperous and will be the main plank with which the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) will contest the upcoming state election and win a third term with a thumping majority, party leader Kalvakuntla Kavitha said during her visit to the University of Oxford.

The BRS MLC was invited to deliver a lecture entitled ‘Exploring Inclusive Development: The Telangana Model’ at the world-renowned university’s Department of Economics on Monday evening.

She delved into a series of policies, strategies and initiatives undertaken by her father, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), since the southern state was born in June 2014, which helped revive the fortunes of the region and create a “springboard” for even bigger growth in future.

“The Telangana Model has been a very prosperous model, which has helped the people of Telangana to go to the next level in their life standards,” K. Kavitha told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the lecture.

“A very deep-rooted, inclusive development has happened in the state of Telangana. This is a main plank with which we are going to the election,” she said.

The leading BRS activist said the people of Telangana had “blessed” the party in the last two terms during which it outperformed their expectations.

“We have delivered many of the promises which we never even made in the manifesto, many of the things that people needed we kept on doing. So, people understand that KCR Garu is their well-wisher, and we believe very strongly that they are going to support us again,” she said.

Asked by the predominantly student audience at the event about the party’s preparations for the state elections coming up at the end of November, she declared: “We are very ready. We are coming back to power for a third time with a thumping majority.” In her address, Kavitha began by tracing Telangana’s struggle for statehood which was realised after much hardship when the BRS inherited a state in distress, struggling with a shortage of power, water and revenue in shambles.

She explained: “The Telangana Development Model has been formulated out of a society in distress and duress. To turn that around and to turn it into a positive growth, we really needed to harness the natural resources that are available to us; we needed to encourage the human resources that are available to us; we needed to fill them with positivity and that is what we have done.

“In terms of investing very systematically into the programmes that we have conceived, in terms of implementing and making sure it reaches the last mile without any corruption – Rs 1,000 sent from the government has to go into the pocket of the person it is conceptualised for; that delivery we made sure happened and that is the Telangana Model.” Presenting a series of slides packed with facts and figures, Kavitha highlighted the significant investments made into the state’s agrarian economy to give farmers the security of free power and water supply.

She pointed to Telangana doubling per capita since it was created and its 0.10 Gini coefficient, which signifies a state of equitable growth at par with the Nordic countries and symbolising that the “poorest of the poor is getting the benefit” of the state’s policies.

A focus on renewable energy, incentives for nurturing plants and forest cover, government-led incubator schemes, targeted healthcare initiatives and high quality government schools were among some of the factors that were flagged as components of the state’s inclusive development model.

“The core of this model is to harness the existing resources that we have and that I believe we have done wonderfully and we are fighters, we fought for Telangana and we are fighting for the development of Telangana,” said Kavitha.

“We've stabilised in these 10 years, but this is our springboard now… we can dare to dream much bigger dreams than this. And under the able leadership of KCR Garu, I believe we'll continue to do so. In the growth, in the development of any state is the development of the nation. India is also growing, India will become much bigger and with leaders like KCR, with models like Telangana that can be applied universally to the nation, to the world, I'm sure we will grow as a country and we will be awesome, amazing,” she said. PTI AK RUP