Chandrababu Naidu is treating the money of the public like his personal inheritance and giving away freebies at will as part of his populist agenda!
How else can one explain his recent decision of a gift pack of all essential commodities for all ‘Below poverty line’ families to celebrate the Sankranthi festival that falls on January 15th, 2015?
The gift would cost the exchequer Rs 300 crore and is supposed to benefit nearly 1.3 crore families in the State which works out to a cost of Rs 220 per family.
While it would be inhuman to deny the poor their moment of happiness, the vexation is over the method Naidu is going about things!
Instead of taking steps to alleviate their sufferings and create opportunities to enable them to lead a life of dignity, Naidu by doling out freebies is just making them parasites on the system.
What’s more, this is not a one- time offer! The government intends to repeat such populist schemes for all major festivals and include even the festivals of the minorities.
God only knows the ultimate strain it will be on the treasury!
On one hand Naidu says that the State is experiencing a severe financial crunch and that every person should donate a brick at least for the construction of the new capital.
On the other hand, he keeps indulging in such fanciful schemes as ‘loan waivers’ and ‘gift packs’ which naturally would be paid for from the pockets of the common man.
The super-rich followers of Naidu like Sujana Chowdary are acknowledged loan defaulters and rewarded with posts in the Union cabinet. They come out with ways to avoid tax payment.
It is only the conscientious middle-class that pays its taxes regularly and for what purpose?So that Naidu and Co can indulge in such populist schemes for vote bank politics!
Assume that Naidu were to set up 27 small scale industries at a cost of Rs 10 crore apiece for those below the poverty line. That would do far more to bring them out of their misery rather than keep them waiting for the next festival.
Naidu should be made to realize that he is a custodian of the people’s money and not the owner.
Either way, it is amply clear that a politician with such a retrograde way of functioning cannot be expected to usher in development that is ‘just’ and reaches all segments of society.
Written By Sridhar
