Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) head K Chandrasekhar Rao was sworn in on early Monday morning as the first chief minister (CM) of Telangana, the newly-formed state of India. Rao's TRS won a majority in the 119-member assembly.
“We achieved Telangana. The long cherished dream of the people, and mine too, has come true. It’s now a new beginning. Like the Telangana movement, there is a need for another movement for reconstruction and development of Telangana state,” said TRS chief Rao.
Spliced out of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana is the 29th state of the country. It will have 10 districts to begin with: Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda.
Telangana was the part of the princely state of Hyderabad and later it was merged with Andhra State to form the state of Andhra Pradesh. Hyderabad will be the joint capital of Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh for 10 years.
Eleven ministers also took oath in the first state cabinet.
Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narasimhan was also sworn in as the governor of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh high court chief justice Kalyan Jyoti Sengupta administered the oath to Narasimhan, who will be the common governor to Telangana and residuary Andhra Pradesh.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu is expected to take charge as chief minister of Andhra Pradesh on June 8.
The new CM said he aims to make Telangana a power surplus state in next three years and will build 2-BHK houses for people belonging to the backward castes. He emphasised on support to pharma, poultry and real estate sectors and promised to encourage seed cultivation in the new state.
He also said Hyderabad will be made a slum-less city and will have 10,000 video surveillance cameras.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
