Government works hard to wipe out taint on 'Brand Hyderabad'

HYDERABAD: The city, dubbed as 'happening' and a 'global city', appears to be facing a very serious identity crisis. Ever since the news broke of drug peddling and consumption in the city, dark clouds of doubt and suspicion have been hovering on the horizon that children of influential individuals, IAS and IPS officers and even politicians are among those who are doing drugs and that every 'effort' is being made to keep such names firmly under wraps.

While this may be so, the government has made it clear that this battle against drugs is one it intends to win, with chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao directing officials to crack down on peddlers and their customers. The government is only too aware that any dent to Hyderabad's carefully cultivated image as an investment destination may bring to naught much of the hard work that went into promoting 'brand Hyderabad' over the past three years.

That the city plays a vital role in the well-being of the state is beyond dispute. The government has repeatedly called Hyderabad as the state's `growth engine'. And IT, municipal administration and industries minister KT Rama Rao has been championing the city and state's cause as the ideal investment haven. When one looks at Hyderabad's gross state domestic product, weighing in at a healthy Rs 1,36,388 crore and accounting for about a fourth of the state's GSDP of Rs 5.6 lakh crore (2015-16 figures), it becomes easy to understand why the chief minister has thrown his weight behind the excise department and enforcement director Akun Sabharwal leading the probe into the drug racket.

Also, a vital aspect of this battle is that it is Hyderabad that leads the way in Telangana in terms of annual per capita income registering at Rs 2,99,997 (2015-16). This is closely followed by the surrounding districts of Ranga Reddy (Rs 2,88,408), Sangareddy (Rs 1,69,481) and Medchal Malkajgiri (Rs 1,62,327).

Clearly, it is these pots of gold that drug runners and peddlers have targeted and that Chandrasekhar Rao has vowed to protect if his plans for the state are to have any meaning in the years to come. After all, many of the carburettors for the growth engine of Telangana -T Hub, Aerospace Park, Genome Valley, Pharma City, Medical Devices Park and Game City to name a few -are in this region.

In fact, the alacrity with which KTR took down Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh on Twitter for a comment on the drug racket appears to indicate that this government is not willing to take it kindly even to a comment on a social media platform when it comes to the image of the city. And with regard to saving Hyderabad and its surroundings from the menace of illicit drugs, it appears for now that the TRS government may put its money where its mouth is.

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