Budget neglected all sections, Jagan

Dubbing the State budget for 2015-16 as being very harsh towards farmers, DWACRA women groups, students and other sections and only benefits contractors, YS Jagan  Mohan Reddy has said the history has come a full circle with the anti-people policies making a comeback with the return of N Chandrababu Naidu at the helm.

"The budget has scanty or no allocations for the welfare schemes and the five files Chief Minister signed immediately after assuming power on the loan waiver to farmers, DWACRA women, pensions, jobs and unemployment stipend do not reflect in the budget in the required measure," he told reporters here on Friday.

While the budget has hoodwinked all sections of people, the State government has been pursuing with policies to encourage and enrich contractors by being very generous and has even went to the extent of withdrawing a GO which was kept in abeyance by the Governor enabling EPS contractors to claim escalated cost with retrospective effect from April 1, 2013 burdening the exchequer. All this was done by GO no 22.

This apart there was extravaganza in renovating Chief Minister's chambers and his numerous foreign jaunts, conducting Yoga classes, irregularities in Chandranna Kanuka and other schemes.

With Chandrababu Naidu coming back to power, history has completed a full circle as the days of hike in power charges, RTC charges, collection of user charges, appointing consultancy agencies for all and sundry, drafting Vision Document, with changed dates, all making a comeback including the fall in growth rate in agriculture production, revenue deficit and the negative aspects of financial mismanagement.

From the nine-year trauma of Chandrababu Naidu term, there was a respite after YSR came to power and economy was bounty and has been on decline after him and is going from bad to worse after Naidu took over and went back on his poll promises.

The State level Bankers' Meeting has clearly stated that the agriculture loans which were Rs 87, 612 on March 31, 2014 has gone up to Rs 99, 555 crores by September 30, 2014,the difference being penal interest. The target the bankers have set for agriculture for the year was Rs 56,019 crores and only Rs 13, 789 crores could be disbursed and for the remaining amount farmers were at the mercy of moneylenders, he said adding the budgetary allocation for loan waiver do not match to the actual figures.

DWACRA women groups are also facing hardships and their loans are being declared as Non Performing Assets (NPA) and they are unable to redeem their gold pawned. Every day there are advertisements in news papers about auction of gold of defaulters which shows the actual picture.

Surprisingly no amount is allocated for the waiver of loans to Self Help Groups(SHGs). Nowhere during electioneering did Chandrababu Naidu said that he would attach some conditions like linking Aadhar card, for loan waiver.

Though Chandrababu Naidu claims that the loans below Rs 50,000 were waived, the complete data is not revealed by the State. Reading out from the case studies of people who committed suicides in Ananthapuram district, he said, the waiver was in no way close to even the interest accrued on the loan amount.

When three Cyclones hit the State during 2013 all political parties have assured help to the farmers but the Agriculture minister, replying to a question, made it clear that no input subsidy would be given which is unprecedented.

Talking tall of Pattiseema project has no meaning without the Pothureddypadu, Galeru Nagari, Hundri Neva and Pulichinthala projects being completed as there would be no room to store the Godavari waters being diverted to Krishna delta.

Women groups were happy with pavala vaddi scheme of YSR but the number of groups are on the decline after Chandrababu Naidu has taken over. The allocation for pension has been cut down drastically. When it comes to employment, no concrete measures are taken, APPSC calendar was not announced regularisation of contract employees has taken a back-seat and there is no mention of unemployment stipend in the budget, he said adding that there are steps to retrench employees from the Corporations like RTC.
The budget allocated for pension is far less than the required amount which shows that many deserving people will be deprived of the benefit. Housing has taken a back-seat as not a single house was constructed in the previous year and prospects look bleak in this year.

On the medicare front, though the amount has been increased and more number of ailments were included, the budget allocation has come down.

The SC, ST sub-plan allocations have come down by 23 % and minority welfare got a raw deal in the budget.

On the capital city, he said, there is 18,000 acres of degraded forest land available just 20 km from the proposed capital which can be used for development instead of snatching away multi-crop lands from the farmers.

To sum up, the budget is not promising to the people, but the policies of the State benefit contractors, he said.