Parties on a sop spree in Andhra, Telangana

POLL DOLE Opposition makes highflying promises, those in power introduce new schemes in bid to woo voters before state elections

The state polls in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana may be 15 months away, but prominent parties in both the states are already trying to outdo each other in wooing voters.

Even as opposition parties make high-flying promises in a bid to wrest power, the ruling ones are introducing new welfare schemes with little consideration of their impact on the public exchequer.

The YSR Congress, the main opposition in Andhra Pradesh, has come out with a mini-manifesto that promises nine different kinds of sops aimed at various sections of the society.

One such promise is that of the YSR Rythu Bharosa, which would entail spending ₹50,000 on each of the 6.6 million small and marginal farmers in the state. The total estimated cost of this scheme is ₹33,000 crore. Another promise made by YSR Congress chief YS Jaganmohan Reddy is the YSR Aasara scheme, which involves loan waivers amounting to ₹15,000 crore for 89 lakh selfhelp group women. He also announced hiking the amount of social security pensions being paid to various sections of people from ₹1,000 to ₹2,000.

Reddy has also vowed to reduce the age limit for payment of old-age pension to SC, ST, OBC and minority community women from 60 to 45 years, if voted to power. Among the other promises made by him are reimbursement of tuition fee for all students below poverty line (expected to cost the state exchequer ₹3,000 crore), and alcohol prohibition across the state. Andhra Pradesh earns nearly ₹14,000 crore from liquor sales every year.

The ruling Telugu Desam Party is also trying to woo voters using similar means despite the dire financial straits the state is in. Chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, after waiving crop loans worth ₹24,000 crore in four instalments, has announced a new scheme that would enable the replacement of existing agricultural

HYDERABAD:

YSR Congress

Financial assistance to farmers Loan waiver for women self-help group Social security pensions Fee reimbursement scheme

Telugu Desam Party

Financial assistance to newly wed couple Unemployment allowance Agriculture pump replacement scheme

Congress

Crop loan waiver Unemployment allowance

Telangana Rashtra Samithi

pump sets with new energy-efficient equipment at a cost of ₹6,000 crore.

Besides this, Naidu is keen on implementing a promise made before 2014 – paying unemployment allowance ranging from ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 per month to jobless youngsters – at a budget of ₹500 crore. Also on the cards is the provision of ₹25,000-40,000 in financial aide to newly wed couples belonging to the backward classes at a cost of ₹300 crore.

The situation is similar in neighbouring Telangana.

The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, has already come out with two major schemes – round-the-clock free power supply for the agriculture sector and financial assistance of up to ₹8,000 per acre every year to each of the 77 lakh farmers in the state. They are likely to cost the state exchequer as much as ₹12,000 crore annually.

Telangana Congress president Captain N Uttam Kumar Reddy, for his part, has decided against holding back on pre-poll promises. He has declared that crop loans of up to ₹2 lakh will be waived off in one go if the party is voted to power. The scheme is expected to cost the exchequer ₹35,000 crore in funds.

Economists, however, are far from impressed.

“There is nothing wrong in political parties promising and implementing welfare schemes, but only if they are able to mobilise resources for the same. If they take loans to implement them, the burden will only fall on the people,” said K Laxminarayana, senior economics professor at the University of Hyderabad.

Former legislator K Nageshwar said it was wrong to assume that people believe all the pre-poll sops promised to them.