The year book has turned a new leaf but Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who took oath as the Chief Minister for the second term on December 13 last year, is yet to constitute his Cabinet.
In the process, Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao may have well created a new record, re-writing the old record of late N. T. Rama Rao, the first non-Congress Chief Minister of the combined State of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Rama Rao had functioned alone for 17 days after he dismissed his entire 31-member Cabinet in 1989 taking a strong exception to the leakage of budget proposals to the Press before it was presented in the Legislative Assembly.
A new 23-member team was brought in subsequently by NTR after 17 days, retired bureaucrats recalled. It created a flutter those days that the Chief Minister had dismissed the entire Cabinet and ran the administration single handedly. When some one pointed out to the then Chief Secretary G.R. Nair that there was no government in the State, he was believed to have replied that Chief Minister himself was the government and wherever the Chief Minister went, the government functioned from there!
One minister
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao, however, is not alone as he has the company of a Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali who was administered oath of office along with the Chief Minister by Governor E.S.L.Narasimhan. Mr. Ali was one of the two Deputy Chief Ministers in the first term and had handled Revenue. He has been entrusted with Home portfolio this time round.
Initially, it was expected that a new Cabinet, though a small team with seven or eight ministers would be in place within a week. Now, other member were expected to be inducted into the Cabinet mostly after Sankranthi festival for want of auspicious days. It is already 20 days since Mr. Rao is at the helm as the CM.
Nevertheless, the Chief Minister has been pretty active as he has been holding continuous meetings with officials on Irrigation, Agriculture, Haritha Haram (plantation drive to improve forest cover) and holding deliberations over implementation of electoral promises. “Technically there is no Cabinet as yet, but it has no impact on the administration as the CM has a hands on knowledge and information about all departments,” official sources maintained.