Mind-boggling welfare measures

DESARAJU SURYA
Hyderabad: Tax-payers in Andhra Pradesh have every reason to feel their hearts burn. For, it’s their money that’s going to be virtually squandered in the coming months only to satiate the hunger for power of the political leaders.
By conservative estimates, a mind-boggling Rs 30,000 crore – a bare minimum -- will be required to fulfill the promises being made by one party after the other on the eve of crucial general elections due in April. All this in the name of "welfare!"
The Cash Transfer Scheme that the principal opposition Telugu Desam Party promised to introduce, if elected to power, alone would require about Rs 21,600 crore per year. Yet another populist scheme of the TDP, free colour television scheme for families below poverty line (estimated to be around one crore), may eat away another Rs 5000 crore. These two promises are just the tip of the iceberg and the TDP has much more to deliver given the countless assurances that its president N Chandrababu Naidu gave to virtually every section of the society. Such assurances include free housing to the poor, unemployment benefit of Rs 1000 per month to each unemployed youth, waiver of loans to farmers, weavers and everyone else. All these require a minimum of Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore.
But the TDP is confident that it can fulfill its promises. “A lot of wealth has been created in the recent years, thanks to the economic reforms. Also, the state’s revenues have touched Rs 70,000 crore and are growing by 21 per cent every year. So, money should not be a problem in keeping our promises,” Chandrababu Naidu asserts.
Not to be outdone, the seven-month-old Praja Rajyam Party of actor Chiranjeevi too has come out with a slew of “welfare” schemes that range from free power to all SC, ST, BC colonies, power at 50 per cent subsidy to all rural households, a Rs 1.5 lakh ‘gift’ scheme for girls on attaining the age of 18 years, Rs 1000 a month ‘gratuity’ for unemployed youth, a pension-cum-insurance scheme for farmers, Rs 25,000 ex-gratia each to widows aged between 18 and 40 years and Rs 20,000 each to those between 41 and 65 years.
All these are in addition to the free health care and free education schemes that will have to be extended to more than 90 per cent of the state’s population. The unemployment benefit scheme alone could leave the exchequer dry by Rs 300 crore a month, given the 30 lakh unemployed youth in the state.
“There are various taxes through which we get good revenues. We have worked out the details and will present them in our Budget,” the Praja Rajyam Party manifesto committee chairman and former Union minister P Shiv Shanker said. Though the party estimated the overall financial requirement to implement these promises, he was not ready to reveal the figure at this stage.
State finance minister K Rosaiah was quick to trash these promises saying they were “impossible” to implement. “The TDP’s Cash Transfer Scheme and the free colour TVs scheme are simply not possible given the financial condition of the state,” Rosaiah observed.
It’s an irony that such words came out from the mouth of Rosaiah, who had been emptying the state coffers for implementing the numerous populist programmes that the incumbent Y S Rajasekhara Reddy regime had initiated over the past three years. The free power to the agriculture sector alone is gobbling up Rs 5000 crore every year while schemes like Arogya Sri health insurance, fee re-imbursement for SC, ST, BC, minority and economically backward class students, rice at Rs 2-a-kg, supply of certain grocery items for Rs 110 a pack, housing for poor, co-contributory pension scheme for women and several others are costing thousands of crores of rupees. The overall “subsidy” bill of the state currently is estimated to be over Rs 25,000 crore.
Incidentally, the ruling Congress has not yet released its manifesto for the coming elections and once that is out, many more new schemes could well add to the already-lengthy list.
The Congress has earned a dubious distinction for Andhra Pradesh by creating the “ridiculously largest” number of “below poverty line” families in the state. As per the government’s claims, more than two crore families – or over 90 per cent of the state population -- hold a white ration card, which denotes the BPL status.
Bureaucrat-turned-politician N Jayaprakash Narayan, who heads the Lok Satta Party, dubbed the TDP’s free colour TV promise a “corrupt electoral practice.” “Where in the Constitution of India has such a scheme been permitted,” he questioned angrily. He even denounced the Cash Transfer Scheme. Jayaprakash was also critical of Praja Rajyam Party’s land distribution promise questioning “would they produce land from any factory for distribution?”