Telangana’s Drought Plan: First, Form a Committee
With 235 mandals facing drought-like conditions, the government has discovered its most dependable crop: paperwork.
Telangana is facing rainfall 17 per cent below normal, with 235 mandals reported to be under drought-like conditions. The Revanth Reddy government’s response is appropriately abundant in everything except relief: form a Cabinet sub-committee, assess the losses, travel to Delhi, convene an all-party meeting and ask the Centre for assistance. The state may be short of rain, but it is not short of meetings.
Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy says the government will assess damage to agriculture, drinking water and power consumption before seeking central help. That part is reasonable. The comedy begins when assessment becomes the event, rather than the preparation for action. A competent administration would identify affected mandals, publish the numbers, announce immediate measures and then argue with Delhi over the bill. Congress Telangana has chosen the grander sequence: committee, report, delegation, memorandum, meeting and, if the calendar permits, relief.
The Cabinet has also approved two instalments of dearness allowance for employees and pensioners, pending since 2024. Ponguleti placed the delay at the door of the previous BRS government. The arrears may indeed have been inherited. They were still cleared under the government that has been in office since 7 December 2023. In this administration, every failure arrives with a predecessor attached, while every remedy arrives with a committee attached. It is an efficient system for ensuring that nobody is responsible until the paperwork is complete.
Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy is especially skilled at turning Telangana’s problems into a procession of external explanations. The Centre must help. Delhi must respond. The previous government must answer. El Niño must explain itself. Everyone is summoned except the state government’s own sense of urgency. This is not federal negotiation; it is governance outsourced to the next appointment.
Telangana needs drought relief, not a Cabinet pilgrimage through the calendar. The government has not failed to announce action; it has failed to begin it.
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