Budget fully reflects our commitment: Andhra Pradesh CM
VIJAYAWADA: Describing the State budget for 2022-23 as a people’s budget, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the three years’ performance of his government reflected the YSRC election manifesto, which he treats as Quran, Bible and Bhagavad Gita.
Speaking during a discussion on the Andhra Pradesh Appropriation Bill, 2022 in the Assembly on Friday, the last day of the budget session, the Chief Minister said the budget is a document of revenue and expenditure proposed by the State government for welfare and development of the State and its people. “We have proposed Rs 2.56 lakh crore budget, but unlike in the past there is no scope for the Opposition to say it was jugglery of numbers. In the last three years, be it budget or governance, our work alone speaks what we are,” he said.
Stating that people are keenly watching the developments in the State and his government’s commitment to public welfare, he mentioned that they blessed the YSRC government in every election after 2019. “Majority of those who voted for TDP in 2019, are now with YRC,” he asserted.
The Chief Minister said for SCs, STs, BCs, Kapus and other poor sections of the society, the State budget is a welfare budget, but for Opposition Leader N Chandrababu Naidu and his TDP it is a farewell budget. “The Opposition in its struggle for survival is raising issues that are not there in the first place and resorting to distortion of facts. They are enacting dramas to get public attention and gain political mileage,” he slammed.
Jagan asserted that in the last three years, 95% of promises made in the manifesto - Navaratnalu were implemented, despite the Covid pandemic and the decline in the State revenue. “We are not giving a chance to the Opposition to criticise the government for not allocating funds for any welfare programme. Naidu in his 44 years of political career and 14 years as the Chief Minister has not done anything worthwhile, which he can claim as his own,” Jagan said.
Elaborating further on welfare programmes, he said in the current financial year, Rs 55,000 crore was credited through DBT and another Rs 17,305 crore was spent on on-DBT schemes.Later, the Chief Minister released the welfare calendar for 2022-2023, stressing that the government is implementing various schemes and programmes for the welfare and development of all sections of the society as per the schedule.