PENUMAKA (GUNTUR DT.)
Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu launched the distribution of social security pensions amounting to ₹4,408 crore under NTR Bharosa Pension Scheme on July 1.
Each beneficiary was given ₹7,000, including July month’s pension of ₹4,000 (enhanced from ₹3,000) and the arrears of ₹1,000 each for April, May and June
Mr. Naidu called it the beginning of a fresh chapter in welfare. The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) had made people’s lives miserable and caused a lot of trouble to the pensioners, he said.
The annual pension bill would henceforth be about ₹33,100 crore, Mr. Naidu said and recalled that the TDP government headed by N.T. Rama Rao had started giving pensions to the poor in 1994-95. The monthly pension was ₹35 then.
Addressing the public, Mr. Naidu said he was thankful to them for giving an unprecedented victory to the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance in the elections held on May 13 and that he was feeling proud to be back as the CM and get another opportunity to serve the people.
He stated that he was surprised by the huge margins with which the TDP won the elections, especially in Gajuwaka, Bheemili and Mangalagiri.
Besides, he said he felt extremely happy for his son and Minister Nara Lokesh for winning the Mangalagiri constituency after major setbacks.
Mr. Naidu said the five-year rule of the YSRCP was like a ‘bad dream and it was so oppressive’ that he was himself not sure when the police would knock at his doors.
The YSRCP thrived on lies, he said, adding such parties and leaders would be kept permanently at bay through democratic means.
He said he was looking into the State’s financial position which was pretty bad due to the massive debt burden that resulted from the YSRCP government’s ‘mismanagement and corruption’, and observed that setting the economy back on track was going to take quite an effort.
The YSRCP government destroyed Brand AP, as a consequence of which entrepreneurs were scared to invest in the State, he said.
Without taking Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s name, Mr. Naidu said, “He showed how a CM should not be. I have to prove my mettle now by turning things around.”
Mr. Naidu went on to say that while giving pensions, he was conscious of his responsibility to curb inflation so that the poor people would be able to lead better lives and that he was facing the daunting task of pulling the State out of bankruptcy.
