VIJAYAWADA: Opposition leader YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday made light of the promises being made by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu days ahead of the elections and promised to bring back Rajanna Rajyam in the State if he is voted to power. Speaking at election campaign meetings at Machilipatnam, Kakinada, Eluru and Kovvur, the YSRC chief said Naidu’s Pasupu Kumkuma was only to woo women, voters.
“Think whether you have really benefitted at least one rupee by the scheme,’’ Jagan asked the women and said that the Naidu government had not extended zero-interest loans as promised after coming to power.
The women SHG members have paid thousands and in some case lakhs of rupees as interest on the loans taken by them. “If you compare it with the money being given to the women SHG members with that given as per Pasupu Kumkuma, the amount you get will not be enough even to pay the interest of the loans,’’ Jagan maintained.
Raising the issue of farm loan waiver, Jagan said Naidu had also deceived the farmers by not waiving loan and coming up with Annadata Sukhibhava scheme before the elections. “The total of farm loans when Naidu came to power was Rs 87,612 crore. The interest accrued on them in the past five years is Rs 1.50 lakh crore. Naidu, after coming to power, with the stroke of one signature brought down the loans to be waived to Rs 24,000 crore,’’ Jagan said, adding that in the five years, the Naidu government had waived off just Rs 14,000 crore. Jagan listed out the various promises made by Naidu before 2014 elections and how the latter failed to deliver each one of them.
“You have kept faith on Naidu and voted him to power in 2014 and you were deceived. Now, you vote for change and vote for YSRC,’’ Jagan appealed to the voters. Speaking at Kakinada Rural in East Godavari district, Jagan said Naidu had poached three of his party MLAs from the district even as the TDP had won 14 of the 19 seats in the district. “What Naidu did to the district even after increasing his tally to 17 by purchasing three YSRC MLAs in the district?’’ the YSRC leader questioned.