Hyderabad polls: Chandrashekar Rao emulates Arvind Kejriwal, offers 20k litre free water per household

In a city devastated by flood waters just last month, Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao is attempting to retain the voters' trust by offering free water.

KCR, as the TRS chief is popularly known, on Monday released his party's manifesto for the 1 December Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation polls.

The most striking among the freebies announced is the promise of providing up to 20,000 litres drinking water per month per household for free, from December.

The election promise is evidently inspired by a similar scheme of the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi where same amount of water is supplied to the households without charge. The free water among other such programs is evaluated as having allowed Kejriwal keep his chief minister seat in the Delhi Assembly polls held in February this year.

This is not the first time a Kejriwal welfare initiative has apparently motivated the KCR administration. The basti dwakhanas (urban health centres) operated in Hyderabad by the TRS led GHMC and state government since 2018, are seen as modeled on the lines of Delhi's mohalla clinics.

KCR claimed that 97 percent of the city's households need not pay for water from now on, while appealing the valuable resource use with care.

KCR has also promised free power for hair saloons, dhobi-ghats, laundries, aimed at drawing the Nayi-barhmin and Rajaka community votes respectively. The CM offered repairs of the ghats damaged by the floods and construction of such modern amenities in required places.

The civic body polls in the Telangana's capital are taking place within two months of the incessant rains and devastating floods of 13-14 October – which has become the main election issue.

While the BJP has been targeting the ruling side over the flood caused widespread miseries, a Rs 10,000 relief announced by KCR for the flood struck families has evidently not reached all the affected.

People queued up in serpentine lines to claim the benefit last week, before the state election commission halted the dole because of election code.

On Monday, KCR chose to add to his party's GHMC poll manifesto, some of the standing demands of various sections of public affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The CM said that his government took the decision to waive the March to September tax of about Rs 267 crore pertaining to 3.37 lakh transport vehicles across the state. The electricity minimum demand charges for applicable industries including cinema theatres is also discounted for the same period.