It's time Andhra CM treaded carefully

Four months ago, when Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh riding on a popular wave, he appeared to be a man in a hurry. He, according to his critics, wanted to scare the Opposition and play the role of eraser.

Some of his moves in the first 100 days did appear to be hasty, but at the same time, they sent a message that he was a man with determination and would do what he wanted to, irrespective of criticism from his opponents. Unlike his predecessor, he refuses to react.

He never looks you into your eyes and has a quiet smile and his high cheekbones do not show any anxiety. Yes, it is a fact that some of his decisions be on sand, or review of power purchase agreements or reverse tendering of Polavaram project and his frequent meetings with Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and expressing his resolve to divert Godavari waters to Krishna at a commonly agreed point in Telangana and his priority to implement reformist schemes Navaratnalu at breakneck speed did cause some confusion and it appeared that things were going off the track.

But four months down the lane, it now appears that Jagan has decided to slow down and see that focus is laid on administration. That certainly is some positive sign. Implementation of electoral promises is a must but then that alone cannot be governance. Governance is a wider subject.

The re-thinking on the part of the government to drop interlinking of Godavari through Telangana is a welcome move. Similarly, it is good that it has also given some clarity that it has no plans to relocate the capital. It has also indicated that it is not in favour of having a grandiose capital city. Every government has its own vision and only future will tell who was right and who was wrong.

The government has also made certain amendments to the new sand policy. The intention was good. The government wanted to eradicate corruption at all levels in sale of sand. But then somewhere things went wrong and the end user continues to suffer. Following the trial and error method, the government has now brought in certain amendments and if effectively implemented it can help in resolving the crisis.

The government now needs to focus more attention on revenue generation as the 2019 financial year will end in another five months. The profile of the State depends a lot on its financial health. There should also be proper growth of all sectors. Similarly, it needs to come out with clear road map on the construction of the capital city.

The YSRCP government may feel that there is no need for grandiose capital city. But it should take care that the land the previous government had acquired through land pooling is well protected so that it can take various developmental activities in future and make it a vibrant capital city.

If it goes in for popular measures like trying to return some of the land which of course is difficult at this stage and would not serve any purpose to the farmer. The land cannot be converted again into agriculture land and in future when the government wants some land it will become a near impossible task to get it.

The assets it has inherited needs to be protected and justice should be done to those who had sacrificed the land. This will earn the government some brownie points. Politically, the party leadership needs to be more responsible. It has unprecedented majority in the Assembly and should set a new example in conducting the proceedings of the Assembly.

Instead of allowing the shouting brigade of the party in the Assembly to pounce on the Opposition, more time should be utilised for meaningful discussions and allow dissent to come out. This will help the government in two ways.

One, it will send a clear message that unlike the previous regime, they are more tolerant and are more democratic and it will also help the ruling party in exposing the Opposition parties' hollowness if it fails to make the debates and discussions meaningful.