A nightmarish first 100 days for CM KKR

On Friday, the government led by Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy completed its 100 days in office.

A tumultuous century later, the only act which can be termed an achievement was the revival of the prestigious Racha Banda programme, which was envisaged by former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy.

On the other hand, Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy’s period of governance saw a plethora of issues rising to the fore.

Things have come to such a pass that not a day passes without a nerve-racking time for the state’s chief executive who went without his pay packet which more or less made history again.

And the issue of non-payment of salaries raised eyebrows in the Parliament as it being a maiden case reported.

Of all the troubles he had been facing from the day one in his office, the one that most pushed Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy into a predicament or dilemma had been the noncooperation by the TNGO staff which removed the wind out of his sails.

Having gone on strike, the NGO staff are demanding the wages for the period they have abstained from the work.

Most of the staff just signed their musters and refrained from working to honour their leaders’ call for achieving a separate Telangana state. Ironically, there is none to see the rationale behind their own slogan ‘no work and no pay’.

This apart, the fee reimbursement also took a different turn with no proper response from the Chief Minister either in word or as budgetary support.

The growth of the Information Technology is also quite sluggish and did not stand up as expected by the government which was seen recently by the ‘bombing’ of the much publicised IT meeting which was a big flop.

Further, the development and growth has also been poor when compared to the period of former Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy who started many a welfare schemes for the poor. He also got the schemes implemented with an iron hand. And so was his administration which was quite spick and span.

Now compare Kiran Kumar Reddy vis-à-vis YSR.

Where does he stand now with a medley of problems surrounding him and rather threatening his term in office, to the extent that these problems may snowball and even cost him his seat.

Will he celebrate his second century in office is another interesting question on the eve of his first century. The other important question is that will the Chief Executive of the State will be able to pay salaries to his staff. 

The Racha Banda drew lakhs of applications from the poor people. The Chief Minister has been credited with effecting solutions on the spot for some of the beneficiaries in the districts, though the programme was marred by the agitationists at various places.

But for the rest of the state, the mounting problems, in one form or the other, make the past 100 days seem like a nightmare.