Creating a Shared Prosperity
The state has long been a model of development with a human face. Andhra is also the most improved state in healthcare and tourism
Women’s self-help groups (SHGs) boosted by microfinance investments have in the past decade ensured inclusive development of the disadvantaged in Telugu society. A slew of government schemes have empowered poor women and offered resources to hone their skills besides improving family finances.
The competitive populism of political parties has nurtured this growth. Such is the clout of the SHGs and DWCRA (Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas) schemes that in the run-up to the 2019 legislative assembly and Lok Sabha elections, former chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu tried to win over the 9.3 million women members of these groups with his ‘Pasupu-Kumkuma’ scheme—each of them got Rs 10,000 and a smart phone, with the total cost pegged at Rs 9,400 crore. However, it did not translate into votes for Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party and, instead, brought the YSR Congress into office.
“We have set Andhra Pradesh on a transformative journey of sustainable growth,” says new chief minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy. His government is now giving farmers the highest financial assistance anywhere in the country. On October 15, Jagan launched the YSR Bharosa-Prime Minister’s Kisan Samman Yojana scheme, under which farmers will get assistance of Rs 13,500 a year (including the Rs 6,000 offered under the central scheme) for five years.
To extend health cover to the middle class, the BPL criteria has been scrapped. Reddy has revised the eligibility criteria for the Dr YSR Aarogyasri Scheme (rechristened in his father’s name) to include all those earning up to Rs 5 lakh a year. Besides them, income tax assesses who file returns for an income of up to Rs 5 lakh, landowners or farmers who own up to 35 acres of land; and private and contract government staff with annual
income up to Rs 5 lakh are also eligible.
This means that 90 per cent the 17 million households in the state will enjoy health cover. The cash-free medical treatment will cost the state about Rs 1,200 crore a year. YSR Aarogyasri will also allow eligible Andhra Pradesh residents to avail treatment in select hospitals in Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The new Aarogyasri health cards, which will be distributed from December 21, will also have the facility to record medical history.
“The debt of residuary Andhra Pradesh (after Telangana was carved out) has surged from Rs 97,000 crore to over Rs 2.58 lakh crore over the past five years because of mismanagement,” says state finance minister B. Rajendranath Reddy. “Still, this will not deter us from launching people-friendly schemes keeping in mind the costs.”
Andhra Pradesh is also banking heavily on tourism to generate jobs and stimulate economic growth. The state has been divided into four tourism hubs—Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and the picturesque Konaseema area in the East Godavari district. The state currently stands fourth in domestic tourist arrivals (largely due to the flow of pilgrims to the hilltop Tirumala shrine), and needs to do more to attract foreign tourists. ■