Hyderabad: As many as nine schemes in the Andhra Pradesh budget for 2019-20 that was presented in the Legislative Assembly on Friday were named after late Chief Minister of the combined state Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, while two other new governmental initiatives were named after present Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. At the same time, former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu’s name was removed from all schemes.
The first budget of the Jagan government which came to power in the April elections distinctly bore the mark of his poll promises as well as the assurances given to people during his two year-long padayatras before. The budget with an outlay of around Rs 2.28 lakh crore primarily gave priority to implement Jagan’s election manifesto, named “Nava Ratnalu”.
AP Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath Reddy, who presented the budget, claimed that the core philosophy of his financial paper was based on the ideology of Jagan and his way of thinking and priorities. “When it comes to choosing between providing world-class flights between Vijayawada and Singapore and providing nutritional food to pregnant women, we prefer the latter,” the FM said.
The FM chose Jagan’s name for a flagship scheme—“Jagan Anna Ammavodi” (mother’s lap)—providing Rs 15,000 annual grant to all mothers who enroll their children in schools, from class one to intermediate level. Rajendranath Reddy claimed that this is a first-of-its-kind in India in encouraging poor families to send their children to schools. This will benefit around 43 lakh students.
Rajendranath said that this was announced mainly because of a promise made by Jagan during his padayatra after he was moved by the plight of poor women who could not send their wards to schools for want of money. “Moreover, illiteracy in Andhra is at a staggering 33% as against the national average of 27% as per the 2011 census,” the minister said.
Another scheme named after the CM is “Jagan Anna Vidya Deevena” (blessing of education) to extend an amount of Rs 20,000 and reimbursement of their fees to all students who study above the matriculation level. This will benefit another 15 students who are studying post-matriculation level courses. The FM claimed that these two schemes would improve educational levels in Andhra.
The budget approved earlier in the day by the Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Jagan named several new centers and institutes after the late Chief Minister YSR. YSR Agriculture Labs, which will conduct free soil testing for farmers, set up at an outlay of Rs 109 core, and YSR Tribal Medical University are some of new institutes to come up in Andhra this year.
To perpetuate the memory of late YSR, the Jagan government has also named several schemes after him. Prominent among them is “YSR Rythu Bharosa” which will provide annual cultivation investment of Rs 12,500 to each farmer. Rs 8,750 crore has been allocated to this scheme which will help 64 lakh famers, including 17 lakh tenant cultivators.
“Ours is the first state in the country to extend this much amount to tenant farmers too and this will go a long way in bailing out the crisis-ridden farm sector,” said the Andhra FM. To flaunt its pro-famer image, the Jagan government has rolled out “YSR Fasal Bheema Yojana” providing crop insurance to around 60 lakh farmers, with an outlay of Rs 163 crore.
“YSR Gruha” scheme, to provide affordable housing to all at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore; “YSR Grants” for religious institutions for repairs of places of worship at a cost of Rs 234 crore, “YSR Schools Maintenance” for repairs in schools at a cost of Rs160 crore, YSR Vaddileni Runalu” (Interest-free loans) with an outlay of Rs 648 crore, are among those rolled out by Rajendranath.
There are some existing schemes, but the Jagan government modified them slightly and re-named them to leave its mark.
For instance, YSR Kalyana Lakshmi is a one-time marriage grant of Rs 1 lakh to poor families. The same is offered to Scheduled Tribes as “YSR Giri Putrika” and to Muslim minorities as “YSR Shadi Tofa”.
Rajendranath allocated huge sums to education, healthcare and agriculture, taking the overall allocation to different sectors to close to 15% over the previous budget. The ruling party members thumped desks and sometimes raised slogans like “Jai Jagan” and “Jagan Anna Zindabad”. The FM at the same time hasn’t raised any taxes or imposed any extra burden on any section of people.
Still the Opposition TDP found fault with the budget, saying that some of the schemes launched by it before the elections were stopped by the new government.