Hyderabad: The adverse power supply situation in the state came in handy for chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy-baiters during cabinet meeting on Friday even as roads and buildings minister Dharmana Prasad Rao, whose resignation is yet to be accepted, gave a miss to it. Though it was expected that the cabinet would pass a resolution endorsing that Dharmana should not resign and continue discharging his ministerial responsibilities, nothing of that sort happened.
According to the sources, Dharmana is still expecting that the chief minister would make a public announcement, exonerating him of the humiliation. When the meeting began, the first salvo against the chief minister came from by endowments minister C Ramachandraiah who found fault with government for not foreseeing the shortage situation. Ramachandraiah minced no words while explaining problems in villages to the chief minister. "If we cannot supply power, we will not be able to win the 2014 elections," he told.
The cabinet meeting aroused interest in political circles as it was held amidst reports that the Centre has been contemplating a change of guard in the state. Ramachandraiah incidentally belongs to Chiranjeevi group, who wants to see its leader as the chief minister. Ramachandraiah himself has desired that Chiranjeevi should become the next CM. The chief minister, after giving a patient hearing to Ramachandraiah, said he was aware of the problems in villages and asserted that he would not cut any ice with farmers.
Kiran’s known critic DL Ravindra Reddy joined the chorus saying that if the government continued avoiding the issue, they would revolt against it. Botcha Satyanarayana and K Jana Reddy, who too do not share a comfortable relationship with the chief minister, kept raising the issue describing the kind of damage it would do to the party. They are understood to have told the chief minister the farmers and general public were seething with rage against the government for its inability to resolve power crisis.
Another issue raised by ministers at the meeting was illegal sand quarrying in several districts. Both Vatti Vsanatha Kumar and Botcha asked why the government failed to evolve a fool-proof policy to reap a handsome revenue from sand quarrying. "If the government got Rs 1,000 crore as revenue, the contractors were making close to Rs 10,000 crore," they pointed out.
The cabinet is understood to have decided to go in for a monsoon session of Parliament after Sept 15. As regards the SC/ST Sub Plan, the cabinet felt the Assembly could be convened at a later date.
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