KCR to lead TS eighth anniversary fete

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will lead the celebrations on the occasion of the eighth anniversary of Telangana state formation on Thursday at Public Gardens.

Rao will also complete eight years in office as Chief Minister on Thursday as he took oath on June 2, 2014, the day on which Telangana state came into existence.

All the ministers will take part in the celebrations in their respective districts. All eyes are on the Chief Minister’s speech in the wake of his confrontation with the BJP-led government at the Centre for the past few months and his attempts to play a key role in national politics by forging an anti-BJP front for 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The Chief Minister will pay tributes at Telangana Martyrs Memorial at Gunpark and later unfurl the national flag at Public Gardens and address the state. The Chief Minister is likely to respond to the prevailing financial crisis being faced by the state government due to the Centre stopping loans to the state since April. He did not react to the Centre stopping loans to the state so far.

The government is celebrating State Formation Day on a grand note after a gap of three years. There were muted celebrations in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid which were confined to the Chief Minister hoisting the national flag at Pragathi Bhavan. The Chief Minister is expected to highlight the achievements of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) government in the last eight years in terms of implementation of welfare schemes and development programmes during his speech on the occasion.

While the Chief Minister will highlight Telangana's progress report of eight years, the ministers were asked to highlight district-specific progress reports in their respective districts.