Hyderabad: As general elections approach fast, the ruling TRS and the main opposition Congress party have engaged in ‘competitive populism.’
The TRS government is already spending Rs 52,000 crore a year on over 40 kinds of welfare schemes covering 2 crore population in state. This amounts to Rs 2166 a month per head. If, on an average, four persons constitute a household, each household is entitled to Rs 8664 a month and Rs 1,03,968 a year.
The Congress has promised to give Rs 3,000 a month as unemployment allowance to 10 lakh unemployed graduates and double the Aasara pension if it is voted to power in 2019.
The unemployment allowance itself will cost Rs 300 crore per month and Rs 3,600 crore a year. For Aasara pensions, the TRS government spends Rs 5,200 crore per year and the Congress promises to double this to Rs 10,400 crore by relaxing eligibility norms. Besides, the Congress has promised crop loan waiver of Rs 2 lakh at a single go expected to cost Rs 35,000 crore.
If Congress comes to power in 2019, the burden of welfare schemes will increase from Rs 52,000 crore a year to over Rs 60,800 crore a year. While thousands of crores of taxpayers’ money is being spent on populist schemes to woo voters and capture power in elections, there is no effort to plug leakages due to which public money is going down the drain.
Every political party is keen on announcing new schemes to win elections but no one is bothered about plugging loopholes by tightening implementation norms, fearing they would lose their vote banks; the result is wastage of taxpayers' money and the welfare schemes not serving the desired purpose by reaching genuine beneficiaries.
Political parties are only interested in accusing each other of making 'impractical promises to win elections. TRS chief and CM K Chandrasekhar Rao said, ‘The Congress’ promises of Rs 2 lakh crop loan waiver at a single go, Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance for 10 lakh youth and doubling Aasara pension are impractical and aimed at cheating voters.
If the Congress has to implement all of them, it needs to stop salaries for staff and halt all other development programmes for at least a year. Is it possible? The state gets revenue of Rs10,500 crore from all sources of income every month.
Of this, half of the amount goes for salaries and pensions for the staff alone. The Congress should first clarify what they are going to stop to implement their promises.”
However, TPCC chief N. Uttam Kumar Reddy dismissed the CM’s claims and said they had given these promises only after conducting a thorough study.
“When we promised free power for agriculture in 2004, everyone mocked at us. But we made it possible. Now the TRS government too is implementing it. The government can generate additional revenues by encouraging industrialisation and attracting big investments in various sectors, which in turn will boost the state’s economy and generate more revenues.” Mr Reddy added.
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