Hyderabad: Mr K.T. Rama Rao said he represented two ends of the spectrum in the Telangana Cabinet as he held the information technology portfolio on one side and panchayat raj, rural development and rural water supply on the other.
"People ask me about what is this combination about? IT today permeates all aspects of life. There is no aspect of life which is untouched by information technology. So there is a great deal of possibility even in panchayat raj and rural development by leveraging IT." He also said that the first results of the Telangana Water Grid project would start trickling in by 2016 April-end.
Water Grid - “The Water Grid has been christened Mission Bhageeratha. It is a pioneering project in the country as no other state has even attempted something like this. Water Grid aims to provide tap water connection of potable water connection to each and every household of the state,” he said.
“We are going to lay more than 1.50 lakh kilometres of pipelines all along the landscape of Telangana. The project is going on in record time. We have completed tendering and all other formalities. Now the works have begun in the field. The first results would start trickling in by end of April 2016. Nine constituencies out of entire 96 constituencies is under my ambit, Hyderabad is outside my sphere of rural water supply. Out of the 96 segments, nine segments will get tap connection by April-end, which is a record,” the minister said.
100% tax collection - “When I assumed office as PR minister, I took a review on the day one and found that the tax collection in 8,770 villages was at 36 per cent. In the last one year, we really drove hard and today have achieved 70 per cent collection. This is the highest in the country. “No other state in the country in the last one year alone has made such a rapid progress, we have doubled tax collection. In fact, the Government of India wrote to all the states saying that if the new state of Telangana can do it, why can't they?
“I started this exercise from my own constituency. Because like they say, charity begins at home. I started the exercise from my constituency to achieve 100 per cent tax collection and then I ran into a bit of rough weather… I used to call up and ask the RDO every day. Eventually we reached 95 per cent tax collection.
“We were stuck at the 95 per cent mark. I asked him ‘what is that it is stopping you?’ He said some TRS leaders were not cooperating. I asked him to give me a list of the leaders. I called one of them… he is a big guy. I asked him, ‘what's wrong with you? He said, ‘Now that you have called, I will pay taxes,” the minister said.
