Hyderabad: Education minister G. Jagadish Reddy and excise minister T. Padma Rao Goud assumed office at the Secretariat on Monday. Mr Jagadish Reddy said the TRS government will implement free education from KG to PG as promised in the election manifesto, while Mr Padma Rao said the present excise policy will continue for the time being and changes will be implemented after discussions in the Cabinet.
“There is a general impression that Telangana is ahead in education over Seemandhra. It’s not true. The presence of many big schools and colleges in and around Hyderabad does not mean that the whole of Telangana is ahead in education. There are many districts in the region that are lagging behind with poor education facilities resulting in huge dropouts. The enrolment at school level and college level in Telangana is far from satisfactory. My aim is to achieve 100 per cent enrolment of school children besides improving enrolment at college-level,” Mr Reddy said.
He said that plans are afoot to implement free and compulsory education from KG to PG and it would be a reality by the next academic year. “For this, we will upgrade government schools and colleges with all the facilities on par with private institutions. The scheme will be initially implemented in these institutions. Many are now avoiding government institutions due to poor facilities.
We will rebuild the image of these institutions and offer free education for all,” Mr Reddy added. The excise minister, Mr Goud, said he will try to check corruption in the department. “The excise department has been under fire due to corruption and other irregularities during the Congress rule. Liquor syndicate scam dented the image of the department. I will try to revive the image of excise department and give no scope for scams with transparent procedures,” Mr Goud added.
