Hyderabad: From opening the gates of the chief minister’s residence and principal workplace, Pragathi Bhavan, to signing his first file at Hyderabad’s famed Lal Bahadur Shastri Stadium, Revanth Reddy seems to be treading in the footsteps of one of united Andhra’s most popular chief ministers — Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, popularly known as YSR.
On Friday, a day after he took his oath as Telangana’s first Congress chief minister, Revanth reinstated YSR’s tradition of ‘Praja Darbar’, or people’s court, meeting several members of the public for grievance redressal. This came a day after the iron gates, the tall barriers, and the barbed fences that fortified the palatial chief ministerial house Pragathi Bhavan, renamed Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Praja Bhavan by the new regime, were torn down.
Hundreds of people, including many persons with disabilities, thronged the premises on the first day on the ‘Praja Darbar’, a press release from the CMO said. “The CM enquired about their problems and received their pleas for government help. He assured immediate measures to address the grievances,” it added.
Initiated by YSR, the former chief minister (2004-09) of united Andhra Pradesh — the state from which Telangana was carved out — the ‘Praja Darbar’ was one of the promises the Congress made in its Abhaya Hastham Manifesto.
The 70-point manifesto was in addition to the party’s six election guarantees, which included financial assistance and free travel for women, and subsidised gas cylinders.
But ‘Praja Darbar’ isn’t the only YSR legacy that Revanth has adopted. On Friday, soon after he took oath as CM at the LB Stadium, Revath signed a file while still on the podium to approve the implementation of Congress’s six welfare guarantees. Through this act, he mirrored what YSR did nearly 20 years ago, when, while taking charge as CM in May 2004 at the same place, he signed a file to provide free power to farmers in the state.
The ‘Praja Darbar’ assurance and Revanth’s immediate implementation of the Congress poll promises were in stark contrast to the approach of his often-elusive predecessor, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K. Chandrashekar Rao, former civil servants told ThePrint.
“Unlike the CMs in united Andhra Pradesh — foremost among these being YSR — chief minister KCR cut himself off from the people. His firm belief was he knew every problem faced by the people in Telangana and also its solution,” R.V. Chandravadan, a retired IAS officer, told ThePrint.
BRS leaders, however, have dismissed such notions in the past. “What is the need when institutions at different levels are functioning properly?” K.T. Rama Rao, KCR’s son and working president of the BRS, asked reporters just weeks ahead of the polls.
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From ‘fortified’ Pragathi Bhavan to Praja Bhavan
In his inaugural address at the LB Stadium, Revanth said his government had renamed the chief minister’s office-cum-residence as Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Praja Bhavan.
Inaugurated in 2016, the building stands on a nine-acre plot and comprises three blocks.
Located in the posh Begumpet area, the bungalow, which was built during KCR’s first term as CM at an estimated cost of over Rs 50 crore, has a multipurpose block of 15,000 sq ft which also houses a meeting hall with a seating capacity of about 1,000.
Critics of the BRS regime claim that despite having a space for public interactions, the building had, over the years of the KCR regime, become increasingly restrictive, not only for the public but also for BRS legislators. For instance, Eatala Rajender, a former minister in the KCR cabinet who’s now in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has repeatedly made public statements about how party legislators, including him, would be stopped at the gates and refused entry unless they had an appointment with KCR.
In February this year, Revanth stoked controversy when he said that it wouldn’t be a loss to the public if the building were to be “blown up by Naxalites”.
According to Chandravadan, a former commissioner of Telangana information and public relations department who’s now associated with the BJP, KCR — the state’s first CM since its creation in 2014 — left “a sad legacy”.
“Not only did he shun the public, but he was also reluctant to meet officials over administrative matters and clear files, which delayed projects and sometimes paralysed governance. And he was also dismissive of others’ ideas including that of experienced, enthusiastic civil servants,” he said.
Akunuri Murali, another retired IAS officer, told ThePrint that the former chief minister chose to discontinue Praja Darbar — a tradition that YSR’s successors K. Rosaiah (late Congress leader and CM of United Andhra from 2009 to 2010) and Kiran Kumar Reddy (ex-Congress leader and Andhra CM from 2010-2014) followed.
“To give them credit, CMs in the united AP — whichever region they came from — were easily accessible to the people to present their problems. YSR went a step ahead and systemised the grievance redressal,” Murali, the convenor of the civil society group Jago Telangana, told ThePrint.
“A desk and special officer were deputed for the Praja Darbar at YSR’s camp office, where he used to meet the public every day for at least 15-30 minutes.”
YSR, he said, ensured that public grievances were computerised, followed up, and taken to their logical end.
“Blame his indolence, his dislike to such tradition or his fear of being confronted by the public, but KCR chose to discontinue Praja Darbar, thereby disconnecting himself from the real public feedback,” Akunuri, a known KCR detractor, told ThePrint.
‘Upgraded resolution mechanism’
Officials from the CMO officials told ThePrint that Praja Darbar is being upgraded from how it was during the YSR-era.
“Fifteen desks have been opened for grievance registration. A special mechanism has been developed to register the petitions online and issue a unique grievance number (ID generated) to each petition. A printed acknowledgment will be given to the applicant along with an SMS,” an official said.
Arrangement has been made to seat 320 people inside the Praja Darbar, officials said, adding that roofed structures have been made outside for people waiting in queues and there are special arrangements to provide the public with packaged drinking water.
“The first day of CM’s Praja Darbar received very good response as people came from not only Hyderabad but also from all districts,” a press release from the CMO said.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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