Chandrababu Naidu‘s Unemployment Allowance Is A Cruel Joke  

Komatipalli, Vizianagaram district: This government does not believe in serving the poor or doing the slightest good in any sector of governance. The only thing the TDP government believes in, is exaggeration and propaganda when it comes to its achievements.

All welfare schemes for them begin six months before polls and are in place for four months. Deceiving people with promises and assurances comes naturally to Chandrababu. Welfare schemes which are being run purely for the sake of propaganda are bound by many restrictions and conditions.

On October 2, Dalemma, an unemployed woman received a Yuvanestham certificate from the local MLA. Bank officials assured her that they would credit unemployment allowance to her account that very day. To this day, not a single paisa has been deposited in her account. Meanwhile, she has been pursuing the matter with government and bank officials on a regular basis.

Before the 2014 elections, Chandrababu Naidu made a promise that every household would be given a job, or unemployment allowance of Rs. 2,000. Four and a half years have gone by and Chandrababu seems to have suddenly remembered his promise and is now trying to roll it out to a handful of people. To further circumscribe the number of beneficiaries in this small segment, is nothing short of deception of jobless youth of the state.

Paidimamba of Marupalli, Varalakshmi and other members of DWCRA groups met me today and narrated to me at length on how the Chandrababu Naidu government let them down on loan waivers which had been promised to them. They vented their ire at Chandrababu Naidu saying that he had deceived them and that even the much-touted “Pasupu-Kumkuma” scheme was a farce. They lamented that not even the first of the three instalments had been released to them.

Moreover, the minister concerned, herself had admitted in the assembly in a written response that the TDP government did not implement any loan waivers to DWCRA groups and had no intention of doing so. Does this government not feel ashamed of the fact that it had to confess in the state legislative assembly that it had deceived the people of the state through fake promises?

Women of Pedakada village met me and narrated their problems with regard to drinking water supply. They pointed out that the water tank built four and a half years ago had remained unutilized. They were furious that the officials concerned failed to lay pipelines and install motors to put the system in place and make it operational. These women struggle for a drop of drinking water every single day, while the ruling party leaders are pre-occupied with indiscriminate sand mining.

Farmers of Madhupada village met me to narrate how the anti-farmer TDP government impacted their lives. The authorities did not bother about irrigation facilities or repair work on Andhra Canal in the area, they lamented. Farmers representatives of this constituency told me that 15,000 acres were being denied irrigation water because work on the Gajapathinagaram branch canal had not been completed. They said—“Anna, in any case, the TDP government neglects the more important, major projects. Why does it not pay attention to the irrigation needs of farmers by focusing on at least some of these smaller canals and projects?“

I could empathise with their anguish and understand their simmering anger. The Chandrababu Naidu government was concerned only with commissions when it came to major projects. When it comes to smaller projects, things are much worse. Because the scale of kickbacks is much lower, work is not done at all. This is the deplorable state of affairs.

I have a question for the chief minister—there are 1.70 crore families in Andhra Pradesh. In your survey, It was revealed that there are only 65 lakh jobless youth. The Yuvanestham program, with manifold restrictions, terms and conditions states that only 12.22 lakh youth are eligible. Surmounting all possible hurdles, only 7.8 lakh youth could submit their applications. Out of these, many applications were rejected on one pretext or the other and finally only 2.15 lakh applications got selected as eligible. 10 days later, this figure was further slashed to 1.64 lakhs. Even that is being further reduced, but ironically, 6.4 crore rupees are being spent on publicity of this program. What do you have to say to this?

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