Loan Waiver, Pension Hike, NTR Sujala, Removal Of Belt Shops Yet To Take Off
Chandrababu Naidu has completed 100 days in office but all his major poll promises are yet to be rolled out. The chief minister affixed his signature on five files pertaining to his promises in the presence of lakhs of people on June 8, the day he took over the reins of the state.
Naidu's first promise was waiving off massive agriculture debts in the state of more than two crore farmers. However, he did not waive off the loans, but merely announced the appointment of an expert committee to look into the issue. He promised to implement the committee report immediately after it was submitted within 45 days, but the matter is still pending.
While the actual agriculture loans in the state have been estimated at Rs 87,000 crore by the state level bankers committee, the expert committee brought it down to Rs 45,000 crore by recommending only one loan waiver per family. Subsequently , the state government decided not to waive off gold loans taken after January 1, 2014, although it promised to waive off all loans due till March, 31, 2014. This further brought down the burden to Rs 35,000 crore.
Citing serious fund crunch in the state, the government asked farmers to repay the loans first to enable them to get fresh loans. After holding a series of meetings with the expert committee and cabinet subcommittee, the government is yet to clear the mess on the issue.
Interestingly, the first signature also promised to waive off loans taken by women self-help groups. In a U-turn, Naidu decided to provide only grants of Rs one lakh to each group instead of waiving off the loans.This has disappointed about 60 lakh women associated with self-help groups.
Naidu's second promise was to enhance the pension amount for the aged, widows and physically challenged to Rs 1,500. Although he signed on the file on the swearing-in day , Naidu set October 2 as the deadline for its implementation.
Meanwhile, all beneficiaries have been asked to link their pension cards with Aadhaar.Hoping to get a higher amount, the aged, widows and physically challenged wanted to get enrolled for Aadhaar but could not. A number of aged people complained about non-registration of their Iris for Aadhaar due to ageing troubles. No district administration had set its eyes on resolving the grievance.
Naidu also assured safe and pure drinking water to all through the NTR sujala pathakam with his third signature.The deadline for implementation of this programme was al so set on October 2. However, members of the cabinet subcommittee are still scratching their heads on finalising the guidelines even as the deadline is fast approaching.
Naidu appended his fourth signature to remove belt shops (unauthorised liquor shops) across the state. After unveiling the new excise policy , bars and restaurants launched `supply on call' (door delivery scheme) to improve their revenues. It is nothing but another face of belt shop sales, say experts.
Perhaps, Naidu's only achievement in the first 100 days is making state government employees happy . He raised the retirement age from 58 to 60, through the fifth signature on the first day as CM. University teachers and staff working in aided educational institutions, marketing committees and public sector corporations like APSRTC are also demanding to fix their retirement age at 60 years.
Although, a few sections of employees are still anxious over moving to the new capital in AP , government employees are relatively content with his rule. Naidu had promised to do all that they demanded with regard to the implementation of health insurance scheme.
Source: TimesOfIndia
