PoliticsHyderabadRanga ReddySangareddyMedchal Malkajgiri
Morning Pulse: A water rationing plan, a bus-fare row and a jobs charge greet the CM's Future City day
Officials are preparing for up to a year of water stress, with alternate-day supply possible in parts of the state. Harish Rao says TGSRTC is overcharging festival travellers and TOMCOM failed job seekers; TGSRTC denies the fare charge, and TOMCOM has not replied.
Pan India Pulse deskBased on reports from Telangana Today, The Siasat Daily, Deccan Chronicle, The Hans Indiaతెలుగులో చదవండి
Telangana spent the Saddula Bathukamma weekend celebrating, but Monday's papers are about what the festival season is costing. Officials are planning for a year of scarce water. The BRS says travellers are paying more to get home for Dasara, and that young people who paid a state agency for jobs in Germany never got them. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, meanwhile, spends today on his showcase project, Bharat Future City. This is the first Pulse since Friday afternoon. The desk did not publish over the weekend.
Water is the biggest story. Telangana Today and Siasat report that the government is drawing up emergency measures for October 2026 to October 2027, and that parts of the state may get water only every other day if things get worse. Krishna basin reservoirs hold 78.5 TMCft against a capacity of 270 TMCft. Godavari basin projects hold 96 TMCft of 145.7 TMCft. The Singur reservoir is described as critically low. Both outlets say about three lakh of Hyderabad's 14.5 lakh water connections, which depend on Singur and Manjeera, could face shortages by December.
The plan has a price. According to the reports, nine stop-gap measures are estimated at Rs 57.55 crore. A separate Rs 84.14 crore proposal would add pumping at Singur under Mission Bhagiratha, and each district collector would get Rs 1 crore for emergencies. Siasat adds that the north-east monsoon had brought 3 mm of rain against a normal of 64.9 mm as of 19 October. Telangana Today says irrigation releases end on 1 November, after which drinking water comes first. This is the same El Nino squeeze behind last week's appeal to farmers to avoid rabi paddy and Thursday's record power demand.
The bus-fare fight is more immediate. BRS deputy floor leader T Harish Rao alleged on Sunday that TGSRTC cut regular services and relabelled the same buses as Dasara specials at higher fares, Deccan Chronicle and The Hans India reported. He said a Jubilee Bus Station to Karimnagar ticket had gone from Rs 230 to Rs 400, and that fares had risen five times in about three years. TGSRTC called the claims false. It said festival fares follow a 2003 government order, that it arranged 7,000 extra buses, and that it has run 97 per cent of the extra services scheduled since 10 October. It also said the Mahalakshmi free travel scheme for women continues across the state.
Harish Rao's second charge is about TOMCOM, the state's overseas manpower company. Citing reports by Siasat.com, he alleged that 70 to 75 young people from 15 districts paid about Rs 4.10 lakh each for a German jobs programme, close to Rs 4.5 lakh with exam, insurance and visa costs. More than two years later, he said, none of the 24 candidates who spoke to the media could name a German employer that had interviewed them. He wants refunds, a CID or judicial probe, criminal cases and a white paper on fees against placements. These are allegations. Neither The Hans India nor Siasat carried a response from the government, TOMCOM, its partner Fairstreet India or Labour Minister G Vivek Venkatswamy.
One loop from Friday closes. We had flagged that no figures had been released from the two-day voter enrolment camps. The Hans India, citing the Chief Electoral Officer's office, now reports that the special drive on 15 and 16 October drew 3,18,042 new Form 6 applications. Of these, 1,50,165 were accepted and 26,627 rejected. Under the SIR, 30,407 voters who got notices have been found ineligible for the final list. Telangana Today reports that more than 5.25 lakh electors were marked for inclusion without hearings. Claims and objections close on 5 November, and the final rolls are due on 9 November.
Today belongs to the Chief Minister's development pitch. Deccan Chronicle and The Hans India report that he will open the Future City Police Commissionerate at Ibrahimpatnam, visit the Young India Skill University campus, lay the foundation stone for a National Institute of Urban Management campus and review Future City's progress. The Hans India puts the commissionerate opening at 3.30 pm. One Siasat report on Sunday night gave the date as Tuesday, so the timing may yet shift.
Pulse view
Analysis by the Pulse deskToday's split screen is hard to miss. The government is selling a new city with its own police force, a skills university and an urban-management institute. The opposition is talking about bus tickets, water tankers and family savings. Both are fair subjects. A long-term investment city is how a state plans for growth, and the Chief Minister is entitled to push it. But in a year when Krishna basin reservoirs hold less than a third of their capacity and officials are costing out alternate-day supply, every ribbon-cutting will be measured against the tap.
On the BRS charges, the burden runs both ways. TGSRTC has answered the fare charge with numbers, though not the specific Karimnagar fare Harish Rao cited, and that could be settled by publishing the fare chart. On TOMCOM, the government has said nothing in the reports we read, and silence on a claim that poor families lost Rs 4 lakh each is costly. Harish Rao, for his part, leans on media reports, and the candidates' accounts have not been independently tested in the reports we read. The simplest test for both sides is a white paper with placement numbers.
If water has to be rationed in the coming months, should the state slow its showcase projects to pay for drinking water first?
What they are saying
The BRS party will stand with these families until every rupee is returned and those responsible are held to account
Revanth Reddy's government has turned state-owned TOMCOM into a racket that loots unemployed youth
What to watch
- Whether the Chief Minister's Future City programme goes ahead today as scheduled, and whether he addresses water or the BRS charges.
- Any reply from the government, TOMCOM or Labour Minister Vivek Venkatswamy to the German jobs allegation.
- Government orders on the drinking water contingency plan, including the Rs 1 crore per collector and any alternate-day supply schedule.
- Whether TGSRTC publishes its Dasara special fares as the return rush begins.
- SIR claims and objections, which close on 5 November ahead of the final rolls on 9 November.
Your take
Do you agree with the Pulse view?
Sources
- Brace for alternate-day drinking water supply as Telangana crisis deepens Telangana Today
- Will Hyderabad face alternate-day drinking water supply? The Siasat Daily
- Harish Rao Alleges Festive Bus Fare Hike, TGSRTC Denies Charges Deccan Chronicle
- TGSRTC denies fare hike, bus cuts during Dasara The Hans India
- BRS seeks probe into TOMCOM's overseas job promises The Hans India
- Siasat.com's TOMCOM exposé: BRS demands white paper The Siasat Daily
- 30,000 voters ineligible for inclusion in final list The Hans India
- Telangana SIR: Over 5.25 lakh electors marked for inclusion without hearings Telangana Today
- CM To Visit 'Future City' On Monday Deccan Chronicle
- CM Revanth to visit 'Future City' today The Hans India
