Parliamentarian – July 2019

54 PARLIAMENTARIAN l juLy 2019

up their offices in the state and that it

will trigger growth in the services

sector in the state.

The farmers’ distress, which is acute

in the state, is one of the top priorities

of the new government. Chief Minister

Reddy has announced financial

assistance of Rs 12,000 per acre to the

farmers, and this is in addition to the

Rs 6,000 per acre announced by Prime

Minister Modi.

Vijay Sai Reddy explained that

Chief Minister Reddy has not resorted

to the populist measure of writing off

the loans owed by the farmers to the

banks. It is now left to the farmers how

they would use the direct cash subsidy.

They can choose to pay partial

payment of the loans, or they could use

it for the next crop which would enable

them to pay off the loan due to the

banks.

According to Vijay Sai Reddy, the

cash subsidy to the farmers did not

come with strings as in the case of

similar schemes announced by Prime

Minister Modi, Odisha Chief Minister

Naveen Patnaik or Telangana Chief

Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao.

Facing a financial crisis combined

with rural distress, the new

government in Andhra Pradesh is

forced to look for ingenious ways to

deal with the challenges of governance.

One of the major issues seems to be

corruption, a legacy from the Naidu

government. The YSRCP wants to

prove its credentials by showing zero

tolerance towards corruption.

Chief Minister Reddy has displayed

his intention to improve the quality of

governance when he demolished the

Praja Vedika, the conference hall built

by the previous state governments on

the river bed, violating the

environmental rules. Addressing the

collectors’ conference, Reddy said that

government should not be violating its

own rules. There is then an attempt to

show that the new government means

to improve governance and follow

rules like anyone else

huge challenge

But it will remain a huge challenge for

jaganmohan reddy was noT willing To accepT

anyThing less Than The posT of The chief

minisTer. in 2011, he formed The yuvajana

sramika ryThu congress parTy (ysrcp)

politics|Jaganmohan reddy