The manifesto released by Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday does not have any major promises to the people, except making tall claims about his government’s achievements in the last five years.
However, Naidu came out with one fresh promise – providing interest-free loans to farmers and there is no upper limit. There is no mention of any further crop loan waivers scheme this time, as Naidu has realised that it is very difficult to implement the same.
Naidu also announced implementation of “Annadata Sukhibhava” scheme – providing crop investment assistance of Rs 10,000 per year to each farmer as a permanent measure.
The other promises like creation of Rs 5,000 crore price stabilisation fund and supply of power for 12 hours to agriculture free of cost were only extension of what YS Rajasekhar Reddy government had implemented way back in 2004.
Another interesting promise made by Naidu to woo the minorities and OBCs is the creation of an exclusive bank for OBCs with a corpus fund of Rs 10,000 crore and also an “Islamic Bank” exclusively for Muslim minorities.
The other promises made by Naidu in his manifesto such as free mobile phones to self-help group women, enhancement of group insurance to the SHGs from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, payment of Rs 50,000 to each of 97 lakh women in SHGs under “Pasupu-Kukuma” scheme, Rs 3,000 each towards old age pensions for people with age limit to be reduced to 60 years, increase in unemployment allowance to Rs 3,000 per month are all existing schemes.
