As promised, Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu launched the distribution of the NTR Bharosa pension scheme by personally distributing the pension to the beneficiaries at Penumaka village of Mangalagiri assembly segment on Monday morning.
Expectedly, the Naidu government issued full-page jacket advertisements in all the major newspapers in the state (except, of course Sakshi promoted by his rival YSR Congress party president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy), describing it as a “pensionla panguda” (festival of pensions) across the state.
In fact, it is not a new programme, as pensions to various sections of people are being given for several years.
The only new thing in the scheme is that the pension amount has been enhanced by Rs 1,000 for all others, except the disabled who will get an enhancement of Rs 3,000.
Since it is the first programme of the Naidu government after the Telugu Desam Party-led National Democratic Alliance came to power last month, one can understand its eagerness to claim some publicity for the enhanced pension distribution scheme.
But what surprised everybody was the absence of picture of deputy chief minister and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan on the advertisements.
In the previous advertisement given by the government, there was a picture of Pawan Kalyan, beside that of Naidu.
In fact, Naidu had instructed to the authorities all over the state that along with the framed photograph of the chief minister, even that of the deputy chief minister also should adorn the walls of all the government offices.
So, the absence of Pawan Kalyan’s picture on the government advertisement on pension distribution has come as a big shock to the fans of Pawan Kalyan.
It has the picture of only Naidu and of course that of N T Rama Rao, whose name was given to the scheme as NTR Bharosa.
Though there were no protests from Pawan Kalyan’s camp so far, his fans have started making comments on social media.
They pointed out that in the Telangana government advertisements, the photograph of deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka is carried along with that of chief minister A Revanth Reddy.
Whether it was done inadvertently or deliberately, it will be better for Naidu to avoid such controversies in future and create an impression that all is not well between him and Pawan Kalyan.
