Kiran Kumar has reasons to smile and worry

HYDERABAD: As one travels on the Hyderabad- Bangalore four-lane highway, one can’t miss the wayside hoardings and posters on the back of public buses: Kiran Kumar Reddy beams from them, crowing about his his pet scheme Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu and signing off with the promise of a “brighter and better future.” Forty km out on the highway is the town of Shadnagar where a public meeting was organised on Friday to mark the completion of Kiran Kumar’s one year in office -- a period during which he weathered trials and tribulations arising out of a resurgent Telangana stir and the incursions of the Congress bete noir, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.But at the end of a difficult year, as the poster showed, the chief minister is allowing himself to smile a bit although quite a few concerns remain to be addressed.By any measure, the turnout at Shadnagar was impressive, a majority of them women who came from all parts of Mahbubnagar district.This was a carefully chosen location, a place in the near vicinity of Hyderabad where everyday concerns keep the Telangana sentiment at a low.All the same, a large mobilisation of policemen minded the streets of Shadnagar.One policeman said potential troublemakers were rounded up the previous night and kept engaged in custody until the meeting was over.As it happened, the pink tinge of Telangana was nowhere in evidence in Shadnagar, just the kind of message Kiran Kumar wanted to send out.Aside from the desire for a separate state, there is need in Telangana for the goods a government can bring.Perhaps the large mobilisation was meant to dispel the notion that Congressmen in the region are not in a position to visit their constituencies.People in general did not appear as emotional as they were a year ago.If one quipped that a T state might not happen, another complained that the local MP, TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao, has not been sighted much in the constituency.In any case, they seemed weary of waiting for a promise that has some hurdles to cross.Not one to put up pomp and show, Kiran Kumar chose the occasion to unveil yet another welfare scheme of his own: interest-free loans to members of self-help groups, to top up the promise of over one lakh government jobs by December with which he hopes to lure the Telangana youth away from the agitation.Roughly, SHG groups in the state obtain loans totalling Rs 10,000 crore annually.By slashing the interest rate to zero from 25 paise, Kiran Kumar intends to signal that Y S Rajasekhara Reddy can be out-welfared.Clearly, his selfgiven political mandate is to slip the Congress party out of the shadow of the late welfare czar without making it too obvious.Adding symbolism to the new announcement at Shadnagar was the presence of A Lakshmi Siva Kumar, once an SHG member, who was chosen as the Congress nominee to the Legislative Council by Kiran Kumar.Also on the dais was actress-turned-MLA Jayasudha -- till recently a Jagan camper -- showering praise on Kiran’s youth jobs scheme, Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu.Yet, despite the effort, the mood in the gathering on the afternoon, was one of midterm listlessness.The price rise is making them unhappy, and the memory of YSR invites them to be wistful about what might have been.All the same, they would like to see how the Kiran Reddy government performs in the next two years, how Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy shapes up as a political leader and whether the TDP is an alternative worth considering again.No complaints about loans to SHGs or pensions for the aged but then there are always those who are not covered.Even as the Mahboobnagar collector announced at the meeting that there are now five lakh pensioners in the district, 64-year-old Phula Naik of Chenchudu village complained that he was not among them.But what of the `1-a-kg rice scheme, the better-than-thou sop announced by Kiran Kumar Reddy recently? The response is mixed.A farmer from a village near Shadnagar complains bitterly about the price rise and also moans about the poor quality of rice available at Re 1: Not fit to consume.However, another from Nagarkurnool feels the Rice is fine.The universal factor of distress among people is the price rise, particularly of farm inputs.“The price of each bag of fertiliser has gone up from Rs 600 to Rs 1,000.Likewise, urea price went up by Rs 200.After tilling five acres, all I was left with was Rs 1,000,” rued one farmer at the Shadnagar gathering.Kiran Kumar may have little to do in checking inflation but it is a ghost that knows no justice Six Schemes to Win ‘em OverAsked to pinpoint his signature scheme, chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy says all schemes are his favourites provided they do their work.He works by the dictum of Deng Xiaoping that it doesn’t matter what the colour the cat is as long as it catches mice.All the same, some of the several programmes he has launched in his one year in office are designed to put his mark on the government and therefore help him emerge as his own man.A rundown of six programmes on which Kiran pins his hopes.Mee SevaThe rural aam admi needs at least 50 essential certificates that will make his life easy: land records, birth, death, caste, nativity, residence and income certificates, to name a few.By one reckoning, a poor may have to spend up `500 (transportation, bribes, etc.) to obtain any one of them.Mee Seva is meant to cut the red tape out of it.It delivers documents online with the digital signature of the officer.Now in a pilot stage in three districts, Mee Seva will pan out all over the state by 2012.Kiran’s aides think it is a winner.RachabandaIt’s Kiran’s mass contact programme meant to boost delivery of government services, such as ration cards, pensions, etc.Now in its second edition, its cumulative outlay has gone up to Rs 5,000 crore, reaching 50 lakh people.Rajiv Yuva KiranaluThe Kiran government policy that jobs will solve all problems is encapsulated in this ambitious programme.The target is to generate 15 lakh jobs— government and private sector— in the next three years.But the most significant part of it is the recruitment to 1.16 lakh vacancies in the government by this December.The CM won’t say it out loud, but the government hopes to win over the youth of Telangana with this programme.Indira Jala PrabhaThis is a scheme that tweaks an existing programme to deliver benefits to a large vote bank.Indira Jalaprabha hopes to render cultivable 10 lakh acres of fallow land belonging to SCs and STs in 22 districts.An amount of Rs 1,800 crore will be spent to irrigate such lands by bore wells and watersheds.Half the targeted lands are in Telangana.Re 1 RiceSounds impressive when you hand out rice for a sikka that buys no more than to fee at the street corner kiosk, but the scheme isn’t going to cost the government all that much more than what it is already spending.The extra burden is Rs 600 crore, but it gets disproportionate share of bragging rights.Stree NidhiWhat’s a government that doesn’t have an eye on the women’s vote bank? This scheme aims to extract rural women from the clutches of microfinance agencies and private moneylenders.Women can get loans up to Rs 15,000 repayable in 24 instalments.In other words, a bank just for women.