Jagan Reddy says TDP’s ‘Super Six’ promises found no mention in Andhra budget

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy has claimed that the ‘Super Six’ promises made by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in its poll manifesto have found no place in the state budget that was presented just a few days ago. Accusing Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu of “spreading lies”, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) chief said he would launch a social media protest against the TDP government.
The ‘Super Six’ schemes, a set of poll promises in the TDP’s 2024 manifesto, include a Rs 1,500 monthly pension for women aged 19 to 59, creation of 20 lakh jobs or a Rs 3,000 monthly unemployment allowance, and free bus travel for women.
Other promises include Rs 15,000 annually for each school-going child and Rs 20,000 per year as financial aid for farmers.
Reddy pointed out that the cost of implementing the poll promises would’ve cost the state Rs 74,000 crore, which had surprisingly found no mention in the state budget.
The NDA government in Andhra Pradesh presented a budget of Rs 2.94 lakh crore for 2024-25, with the opposition calling it a series of broken promises.
He claimed that Rs 3,000 for the unemployed would cost the state around Rs 7,200 crore, which has no mention in the budget, while only Rs 1,000 crore for farmers has been mentioned as opposed to Rs 11,000 crore that was promised.
“Chandrababu has a pattern of cheating and spreading lies. First he makes a mention which will be carried by his friendly media, then it will do the rounds by his party leaders, alliance partners Pawan Kalyan, Purandeswari and the so-called analysts who run a vicious campaign. This is done in an organised way with criminal intentions,” he said.
Further, he accused the NDA of misleading the people when the YSRCP was in power.
“The coalition partners raised a hue and cry that the Jagan government has been taking heavy loans and gave varying figures ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 24 lakh, but in their own budget document, they revealed that the actual figure is Rs 6.46 lakh crore. Is this not cheating?” he asked.
Jagan Mohan Reddy claimed that the year-on-year revenue under YSRCP rule was Rs 42,336 crore, which came to Rs 41,570 crore. He said that his government bettered the GDP despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Talking about his social media protest, the former chief minister said that the NDA government had issued notices to 680 social media activists, registered 147 cases and arrested 49 persons.
“Social media is the platform to express views and this government has been scuttling the voice using brute force,” he said.