11 hours ago
One year of NDA govt: AP on the development path
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Andhra Pradesh completed one year in office earlier this month. It assumed charge under the leadership of Nara Chandrababu Naidu as Chief Minister on June 12, 2024, following a stupendous victory in the Assembly elections on June 4. As IT Minister and TDP general secretary Nara Lokesh said at the meeting on Monday, it was a historic mandate indeed with the NDA coalition comprising TDP, Jana Sena and BJP, winning 164 out of 175 seats that were up for grabs. With the NDA government completing one year in office, it's time for a reality check. Unlike YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who squandered a golden opportunity as a first time chief minister after winning the 2019 polls, Naidu seems to be tapping his vast experience to put the state on a rapid developmental path. Into an enviable fourth term and 16th year as chief minister, he took several measured decisions that would do a world of good to Andhra Pradesh. In the last one year, he brought marquee IT companies like TCS and Cognizant to Visakhapatnam, which his government wants to transform into a technology hub on the lines of Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The latter owes its phenomenal success in the information technology (IT) space to Naidu who wants to replicate the same in Andhra Pradesh. But there is a rider here though. If Naidu is serious about laying a solid foundation for a Hyderabad-like megapolis in Amaravati, he should focus on developing IT and industrial sectors in the Greenfield capital. Without the presence of employment-generating sectors, Amaravati will never grow into an urban agglomeration. In India, there are very few cities that can boast economies of scale. Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad fall into that elite category of cities that generate a lion's share of revenues for their respective states. Andhra Pradesh also needs a similar metropolis for it to tap the fruits of urbanization. It is to be seen how Naidu handles this. He said recently that in the last one year, the state had attracted investments to the tune of Rs 9.34 lakh crore with a potential to generate 8.5 lakh jobs. Among the major investors is steel giant ArcelorMittal, which is investing a whopping Rs 61,000-crore on the first phase of a steel plant. Nara Lokesh played a key role in getting many investments to the State. The government also put the construction of Amaravati capital on fast track.
But how did Naidu, known for his pro-development stance, perform on the welfare front in the first year? His government increased social security pensions to Rs 4,000 from Rs 3,000 per month immediately after coming to power. The government implemented the Talliki Vandanam scheme with Rs 8,745 crore for this year. But the government needs to do a lot more on the welfare front. Promises like free bus travel to women, financial assistance to farmers and unemployment allowance are still pending. Of course, implementing all the welfare schemes that have been promised will require huge funds. For a state reeling under a debt burden of around Rs 10 lakh crore, it's not easy to allocate massive funds for welfare schemes. However, the state government can greatly reduce the financial burden of the welfare schemes by plugging in leakages and confining the benefits to people or families which are genuinely in need. Nevertheless, the NDA government has put Andhra Pradesh on a developmental path while it made a tight rope walk when it came to welfare schemes in the first year in office. Further, using police excessively might not go down well with people. However, support from Jan Sena and BJP came in handy. But sustaining this momentum for the next four years holds key for the NDA coalition to retain power in the state in 2029.
