10 years of Telangana: KCR's vision makes administrative reforms for 'Good governance' effective

HYDERABAD: Telangana's state government has followed geographical and administrative decentralisation with the underlying concepts of transparency and ‘people-first’ administration since its inception in 2014, setting an excellent benchmark of 'Good governance' for the rest of the states.

The state government reorganised districts, revenue divisions, mandals, and gram panchayats, increasing their numbers from 10 to 33, 42 to 75, 459 to 612, and 8,368 to 12,769, respectively, in order to enhance effectiveness of administration in all districts.

The Telangana Panchayat Raj Act 2018 (PR Act 2018) was promulgated by the government, clearly defining the powers available to village panchayats, outlining the roles and responsibilities of their functionaries, and introducing a monitoring system for mandal panchay officers to inspect the functioning of village panchayats once every three months.

The state administration laid emphasis not just on cities and other districts, but also on tribal areas in order to empower downtrodden and marginalised groups. The declaration of several tribal thandas as independent village panchayats, in accordance with the Panchayat Raj Act, has also aided in the empowerment of underprivileged sections of society.

The ‘Palle Pragathi’ project was introduced in 2019 in congruence with the revised PR Act 2018 with the dual goals of increasing rural life quality and village panchayats’ governance.

Reorganisation of department

The Irrigation department's administrative structure has been reorganised with 19 Terriotorial Engineer-in-Chiefs/Chief Engineers and nine Head Quarter Engineers-in-Chiefs/Chief Engineers for better and more responsive management of the State's irrigation infrastructure by allocating 945 additional posts in various categories.

The state government also reorganised the Transport, Roads & Buildings department by combining the Housing, Infrastructure, and Investment departments. The reorganisation of the jurisdiction of 10 Anti-Corruption Bureau range offices helped in effective functioning.

Integrated District Offices Complexes

The government has begun building Integrated District Office Complexes (IDOC) in 29 districts. The IDOCs house district-level offices for all departments and are widely accessible to the public.

Presidential Order 2018

The Telangana Public Employment (Organisation of Local Cadres and Regulation of Direct Recruitment) Order, 2018 amended Article 371-D of the constitution to ensure that local people receive full justice in government employment.

The fundamental purpose of the act is to provide 95 percent reservation of posts for local applicants in Direct Recruitment from junior assistant to Group-I (RDO) services, i.e. from district cadre to Zonal and multi-zonal cadres. Following this amendment, two multi-zones and seven zones have been established in 33 districts. New recruitments are being done in accordance with this.

Online transaction

Removing the human interventions, online transactions has eased the process of transferring welfare schemes into the individual bank accounts of beneficiaries. Schemes like rythu bandhu, Dalit bandhu, Aasara pensions and many schemes have become transparent.

Dharani Portal

Dharani portal was introduced as part of another wonderful example of good governance to increase transparency in land records. This gateway marks the start of a new era in land administration. This gateway allows anyone from anywhere in the globe to access the records of their land records.

The Dharani web portal went live on October 29, 2020, and registrations began on November 2, 2020. Dharani web platform provides integrated registration and quick change of Revenue records for agricultural lands. Agricultural land registration procedures are now being completed in Tahsildar offices via advance slot booking on the Dharani portal. The site has removed officials' discretion, simplified registration and mutation processes, eradicated corruption, and ensured complete transparency in registration and revenue record maintenance.

The instant mutation of non-agricultural properties began in June 2021. The sub-registrar issues a mutation certificate to the purchaser of a house/flat/plot. The Revenue Department has performed more than 13.32 lakh mutations.

Non-agricultural property instant mutation began in June 2021. The sub-registrar issues a mutation certificate to the purchaser of houses/ flats/ plots. The revenue department has performed around 13.32 lakh mutations.

The single Encumbrance Certificate (EC) system was formed in September 2021 to relieve citizens of the hassle of making rounds to various sub-registrar offices, so that EC can be obtained directly from the present jurisdictional sub-registrar office or through any Mee-Seva.

TS-bPASS a path-breaking reform in building permissions

The Telangana State Building Permission and Self Certification System (TSbPASS) created by the government represents a paradigm shift in urban planning and real estate development. This innovative platform, with its wide-open and uniform building permission system, has emerged as a cornerstone of the Telangana government's efforts to modernise the state's urban infrastructure.

The Telangana government established the TS-bPASS Act in 2020 in compliance with the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019, establishing TS-bPASS as an integrated platform for managing many approvals required for land development and building construction. TS-bPASS was implemented across all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in the state on November 16th, 2020.

The construction of Dr B R Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat has become the highlight of KCR’s administrative reforms process.