Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari’s honeymoon with chief minister KCR appears to be over. The talk in the TRS circles is that he is another ‘Rajaiah’ in the making. Very soon, Srihari either will be eased out or marginalized in the cabinet.
For starters, Dr T Rajaiah is dalit MLA from Station Ghanpur, Warangal district. Earlier he represented same constituency as Congress leader. A vocal leader and a doctor by profession, he quit Congress to join TRS and won the seat. He was made health minister and deputy chief minister by KCR. But it took exactly six months to fall from the grace of TRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao. After a couple warnings, for announcing important decisions about setting up of health university in Warangal, following serious allegations of corruption in the purchase of 285 ambulances, on January 25, chief minister sacked Rajaiah. And within hours, Kadiam Srihari, another Madiga MP, was inducted into cabinet and named deputy chief minister.
In exactly six months after his swearing-in, Srihari has become a target because of his alleged “danda” (collection spree) in according JNTU affiliations to private engineering colleges. The primary charge against the deputy chief minister is that he colluded with “Andhra” professors in the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University-Hyderabad (JNTU-H) to deny affiliation to Telangana colleges while favoring colleges owned by Andhras.
The Charges against Andhras in JNTU-H
The Andhra clique in JNTU-H denied affiliation to T-Colleges, even though they had fulfilled conditions up to 98 per cent with regard to faculty, labs and equipment. Without physical verification, refusing to take oral presentations, the clique passed favorable orders on their whims. Highly critical of this attitude, KVK Rao, representative of Private Engineering Colleges Association, dared JNTU-H to prove that the 25 engineering colleges which were denied affiliation, had not fulfilled the conditions. According to the complaints against the Andhra lobby in the JNTU-H, the university’s guest house stands witness to the midnight collection drama. “On June 28 midnight a list of 64 colleges was posted in website. The list was removed before 6 AM next morning. The list, its subsequent removal and denial of affiliation to colleges is indicative of charge of danda (collection spree),” said Namaste Telangana, a newspaper owned by chief minister KCRs family.
In fact, the JNTU-H is administered by in-charge vice-chancellor, Sailaja Ramaiyer, an upright officer in state government.
Campaign against Kadiaym
The paper made serious charges against deputy CM without attributing to anybody. It says the guest house danda (collection spree) has been done with full knowledge of deputy chief minister Kadaiam Srihari.
Similarly the deputy chief minister boasted with private engineering collages representatives that he would not pay heed to anybody in the matter of affiliations.
According to the newspaper, one official has been entrusted with the work of helping colleges recommended by T-Congress, while another is made in-charge of ‘collections’.
CM’s paper reported this and CM’s office took cognizance of the report and sought reports from vice-chancellor.
Congress’ reference in the complaints might be pointer to Ramaiyer’s husband D Sridhar Babu, a Congrerss leader and former minister.
The campaign by Namaste Telangana against deputy CM is being seen as the end of the road for Kadiam.
Is there any message in Chief Minister KCR’s announcement that Koppual Eswar (Dalit MLA from Dharmapuri) would be taken into cabinet, given this background?
(jnr)