Govt. focussing on infrastructure development as priority area, says Chief Secretary

Telangana government prioritizes infrastructure development for growth, revenue, and efficiency, focusing on resource mobilization and interdepartmental coordination.

The Telangana government is focussing on development of infrastructure as its priority area as it will lead to further growth and ensure more revenues to the State.

“We have initiated efforts to mobilise resources and incur capital expenditure on infrastructure development as it will have a cascading effect on other sectors,” said Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao. He underlined the need for targeted spending on the upcoming Future City, roads, drinking water and other infrastructure, asserting that everything comes to a standstill in the absence of required infrastructure. “This is our basic overall scheme for the coming days,” he told The Hindu.

The government is exploring multiple options like setting targets to revenue-earning departments, aggressive steps to prevent leakages and contemplation of initiatives like one-time settlement schemes for realising long-pending dues to raise the required resources. Tracking taxpayers to ensure compliance and leasing/monetising properties are among the areas that are being looked into. He added that they were also looking at externally aided projects to finance the development.

The Chief Secretary, who recently assumed charge, said the performance of the revenue-earning departments will depend partly on effectively plugging loopholes and partly on the economic scenario. “There are some departments, like vehicle sales, which register impressive growth when there is a boom. There are others like liquor where we cannot go beyond a certain limit,” he said, explaining that the focus on checking fake input tax credit ensured recovery of ₹100 crore in the past couple of months.

When asked about the steps taken to forge effective interdepartmental coordination, Mr. Ramakrishna Rao said he will endeavour to ensure that things do not get stuck between departments. In addition to focussing on meeting the senior officials involved, he added that steps have been initiated to leverage technology to ensure virtual meetings with different departments and teleconferences on regular basis to assess the progress achieved in different parameters.

“I don’t want to conduct meetings more than necessary. Meetings will be short but with a very clear agenda on targets set and achievements made,” he said, adding that the officials concerned will go back with specific action plans at the end of the meetings.

Mr. Ramakrishna Rao said he gave equal importance to meeting junior-level officers to know their interests, know about the good initiatives they propose and overall “to know them as persons and officers”. Mentoring the officers is important as addressing their issues will ensure that they are inspired to perform well.