Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy left no stone unturned in driving home the point that his YSR Congress Party government clearly outperformed the erstwhile Telugu Desam Party (TDP) rule on various fronts in reaching out benefits to the public.
Addressing a public meeting in Puttaparthi on November 7 ahead of distributing ‘YSR Rythu Bharosa’ and ‘PM Kisan’ to the tune of ₹2204.77 crore, he clearly made a comparative study between the 14-year-old TDP rule and his YSR Congress Party’s 53-month-old rule and the benefits accrued to the farmers during the said periods.
Mr. Jagan recalled that the TDP rule had clearly let down the farmers by ignoring remunerative price to crops, not extending input subsidy, diluting ‘Sunna Vaddi’ scheme and also by not waiving off bank loans as promised ahead of elections. Similarly, many farmers got rights over lakhs of acres of their farm land due to the reformative measures initiated by this government, he said, quizzing, “Why did not Chandrababu Naidu think of all these?”.
Looking beyond agriculture, the government also ushered in a cooperative revolution by roping in Amul. “This fetched an additional ₹10 – ₹22 per litre to every farmer, in contrast to the Chandrababu Naidu regime where only his ‘Heritage Dairy’ flourished”, he alleged.
The Chief Minister said the agricultural yield also improved from 154 lakh tonnes during the past to 166 lakh tonnes during this regime, which he attributed to the State’s intervention. “Apart from scams, can you recall a single well-meaning scheme implemented during the TDP regime?”, he pondered.
The Chief Minister also asked the public to take cognisance of the changes being made on the educational front. He said the State-run school buildings were given a facelift under ‘Nadu Nedu’, curriculum undergoing a sea change with the introduction of English medium, introduction of digital classrooms and distribution of tabs to VIII class students. “Why could not Chandrababu Naidu do all these?”, he asked the public again.
Jagan Mohan Reddy confessed that he relied solely on God’s grace and the people’s mandate and not on the support of media or political alliances. “Chandrababu Naidu is eager to return to power with the help of media and his ‘adopted son’ (referring to Jana Sena leader Pawan Kalyan) not to benefit the public, but to swindle the State”, Mr. Reddy charged.
