Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has directed government departments to sharply increase revenue mobilisation and plug leakages, as his administration works to fund a long list of pending projects without straining the state’s finances further.
At a high-level review meeting this week, Revanth Reddy told officials to prioritise land acquisition, land pooling and asset monetisation as revenue tools, and singled out the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority and the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation as agencies that should be generating far more income than they currently do. He also ordered stricter checks on leakages in the Commercial Taxes, Excise and Mining departments, three areas that account for a large share of the state’s own revenue.
In a push tied to welfare delivery, the Chief Minister also instructed officials to integrate beneficiary databases with the Direct Benefit Transfer system using artificial intelligence tools, arguing this would cut inefficiencies and ensure subsidies and welfare payments reach the intended recipients without diversion.
Revanth Reddy used the same review to defend his government’s welfare record, saying the state had spent close to Rs 1.75 lakh crore on farmer welfare schemes in the roughly thirty months since Congress took office, a figure he has repeated in recent public appearances as opposition parties question the state’s fiscal health.
That questioning has grown louder. BRS working president KT Rama Rao has challenged Revanth Reddy to an open, public debate on governance, the state’s finances and continuing farm distress, accusing the Congress government of misrepresenting Telangana’s financial position since taking over from the BRS. The Congress leadership has pushed back hard on the framing, and the exchange has added a sharper edge to what was already a combative monsoon session build-up.
The political temperature has risen inside the ruling party too. The Telangana Congress issued a show-cause notice to TPCC general secretary Katti Venkat Swamy this week after he publicly claimed there was growing internal dissent against the Chief Minister, a charge the party leadership wants addressed before it gains traction ahead of local body elections.
Taken together, the revenue drive, the AI-linked welfare push and the public sparring with the BRS suggest a government trying to show fiscal discipline at the same time as it defends a welfare spending record opponents are determined to put under the microscope.
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