K. Kavitha

Some Lesser Known Facts About K. Kavita

• Kavita’s father is serving as the CM of Telangana since 2 June 2014 and is known as KCR. Her father started the Telangana movement in 2001 and won the Telangana seats both for the state assembly and the national parliament and became the first Chief Minister of Telangana in 2014.

• In 2003, after getting married, she started living in the USA and worked as a software engineer there.

• In 2006, when she came back to India from the USA, she decided not to leave and desired to work for the people of Telangana. She started helping her father in the Telangana movement after he resigned from the Union Cabinet because he did not receive any help from the Central Government in the formation of Telangana. She started visiting all the remote villages in the state to get knowledge of the problems faced by the people. After some of her visits, she realized that the problems included poverty, lack of basic needs like power, potable and irrigated water, and unemployment. She also understood that to improve their conditions, she had to unite all sections of society. When she realized that the people of Telangana loved indigenous art and culture, she organized a huge programme to celebrate the Bathukamma festival. Her move made the festival very famous and now it is celebrated in more than 30 countries.

• In August 2006, she got more enthusiasm to work for the people of her state and formed the Telangana Jagruthi party (now known as Bharat Rashtra Samithi). The party got registered in November 2007. According to her, the word Jagruthi means awakening and the word Jagruthi means girl awakening. She focused on making people aware of their culture and unity and gaining women’s support for the Telangana movement. There were many youngsters and women who participated in the movement and fought it without violence. She also established Telangana Jagruthi Skill Centers to provide training and employment to youngsters. These centres train around 8500 students across Telangana and provide them with placements.

• Her name was also suggested for the Steering Committee of Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP) India Region which works to bring more women representatives to Parliaments.

• People in her state call her by the name Kavithamma. She is very famous among the people because of her active participation in the protests and demonstrations during the Telangana movement.

• She works as the honorary President of Telangana Rashtra Vidyut Karmika Sangham (TRVKS ) which is an electricity employee union and Telangana Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Association (TAWHA), for Anganwadi workers.

• She became the first, youngest, and second female minister to become the state chief commissioner of the Telangana chapter of the Bharat Scouts and Guides (BS & G) Association.

• In April 2022, she spoke against the Union government for not buying paddy from the farmers of Telangana even after promising to do so. At that time, she was serving as a member of Parliamentary committees including rural development, drinking water and sanitation. In an interview, she said,
  

  Paddy procurement from Telangana is nil. We demand the Union government’s support for Telangana farmers. Food Corporation of India doesn’t have a proper procurement policy. We request FCI to release a yearly calendar so that states can direct farmers to sow crops accordingly and that there should be uniform procurement.”

• In July 2022, she spoke at the 7th Convention and Youth Conference of ATA in Washington DC, USA, and inaugurated the Telangana Pavilion.

• In August 2022, when her name came up in the Delhi liquor policy case, she filed a defamation case in a Hyderabad court against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders Parvesh Varma and Manjinder Singh Sirsa who named her in the case.

• In August 2022, she wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana to take some action in the Gujarat government’s decision to release 11 convicts in the Bilkis Bano gang rape and murder. In the letter, she said that the Gujarat government went against the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs which says that prisoners convicted for the offence of rape, and human trafficking should not be released.

• In December 2022, she wrote a letter to CBI informing them about her availability for interrogation in the Delhi liquor excise policy case. In the letter, she wrote,
  

  I have carefully gone through the contents of the FIR, the list of accused persons as well as the contents of the complaint. I wish to place on record that my name does not figure in any manner whatsoever. As proposed by you, I am not in a position to meet on December 6 because of my preoccupied schedule, I will be able to meet you either on December 11, 12, 14, or 15, whichever is convenient to you, at my residence in Hyderabad. I am a law-abiding citizen and will cooperate with the investigation.”

• In December 2022, she was accused by the ED of holding a 65% stake in liquor company Indo Spirits which was involved in the Delhi liquor scam.

• On 6 February 2023, she demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should speak about the issue of the fall of the Adani Group’s stock prices and set up Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the matter. She also said that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s statement about Adani’s issue was not correct. In a statement, she said,
  

  Today in the country, we are facing a huge crisis. We can definitely call it a crisis as the fall of Adani Group’s shares and the value of the company will impact the country’s economy. The value of shares of SBI and LIC that invested in the Adani Group has fallen sharply since January 23 till date. It has caused a severe loss to the common man. The share value of Adani on January 23 was Rs 3,436. Now, the share value of the group has fallen to Rs 1,483 on February 6.”