Hyderabad: The full-fledged Cabinet of the Telangana government has met for the first time in the Secretariat on Tuesday.

Though the TRS government was formed more than six months ago, full-fledged Cabinet meetings were not possible since the Cabinet had six vacancies. However, with the induction of six new ministers on Tuesday, it was a special occasion for the state cabinet and the Chief Minister, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao. He has utilised the opportunity to spell out the priorities of his government and the responsibilities of the ministers in achieving his dream of ‘Bangaru Telangana’.

Barring KTR, all the 17 members of the cabinet attended the meeting, which went on for nearly two hours, soon after the conclusion of the swearing-in-ceremony. There was a festive atmosphere in the TS Secretariat with scores of supporters of newly-inducted ministers celebrating the event by distributing sweets and raising slogans in support of their leaders.

“It was an informal Cabinet meeting. The CM has told us in detail about the priorities of the TRS government and how to achieve them within the stipulated timeframe. He also asked us to be careful while discharging duties as ministers, not to allow any kind of political corruption in our departments and take enough precautions while appoin-ting personal staff in our offices,” said Mr Allola Indrakaran Reddy, a newly-inducted minister.

Another new minister Tummala Nageshwar Rao said, “The Chief Minister has told us that the responsibility of delivering ‘Bangaru Telangana’ as promised by the TRS government lies mainly on the ministers.”

According to Mr Rao, the Chief Minister had told them that any good change has to begin at the top and not from the bottom. “If we as ministers are sincere and committed towards our duties, the employees at lower-levels will automatically follow suit,” he said.

The Cabinet has approved setting up of the Telangana Election Commission besides naming all the government offices located in the state after Telangana.

CM KCR goes by caste, experience:

The others who were sworn into the KCR Cabinet on Tuesday were legislators A. Indrakaran Reddy, C. Lakshma Reddy, Ajmeera Chandulal and Jupally Krishna Rao. Except Mr Lakshma Reddy, the others are former ministers from undivided AP.

Three of the new ministers defected from other parties: Apart from Mr Srinivas Yadav, Mr Nageswara Rao joined from the TD and Mr Indrakaran Reddy from the BSP. It is expected that Mr Nageswara Rao will be elected to the Legislative Council, and Mr Srinivas Yadav will contest the byelection for the Sanathnagar seat.

The resignation of Mr Srinivas Yadav was necessitated by a disqualification petition filed by the Telugu Desam over his defection to the TRS without quitting his Assembly seat.

The petition is pending with Speaker S. Madhusudhana Chary. The Chief Minister reportedly advised Mr Srinivas Yadav to quit Assembly seat to avoid embarrassment. The Chief Minister seemed to go by experience besides caste equations to strengthen the party base in the districts including Hyderabad.

Now the 18-member Cabinet has six Reddys, four Velmas, 4 BCs, and one minister from the Kamma, SC, ST and Muslim communities. Khammam gets representation through Mr Nageswara Rao, and Mahbubnagar, Mr Krishna Rao and Mr Lakshma Reddy.

Among the aspirants who went back disappointed were Warangal West MLA Vinay Bhaskar, Chennur-SC MLA Nallala Odelu, Asifabad-ST MLA Kova Lakshmi and Alair MLA G. Sunita.

They were consoled by party leaders at Raj Bhavan. Traffic went haywire at Raj Bhavan for some hours as supporters of the new ministers came in long convoys to greet their leaders along with banners and placards.