With Assembly elections 12-18 months away, Andhra Pradesh is going through a different kind of birth pang; of giving birth to several welfare programmes. While the cost to the state exchequer is high, it is a cost that the government is willing to bear considering the returns that could accrue to the ruling Congress party in the Assembly elections that are due in mid-2009.

Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy is leaving no stone unturned to see that different segments of the populations, if not all, are covered by his government’s munificence. The cost to the exchequer will run into at least Rs 10,000 crore by some estimates.

The CM’s critics point out that Reddy is trying to regain lost ground. The government has come under severe criticism for “rampant corruption” in its two highly ambitious projects “Jalayagnam” of irrigating a few lakh acres by constructing irrigation projects, and the Indiramma Housing scheme for the poor.

The subsidised (Rs 2-per-Kg) rice scheme, a pet project of the late N T Rama Rao is being revived from April 7, to coincide with the Telugu New Year of Ugadi. It will benefit 1.7 crore poor households, who will get 20 kg a month.
At present, rice is being supplied at Rs 5.25 a kg. The scheme is expected to cost an additional commitment of Rs 1,200 crore to the state.

The 80 lakh houses proposed to be constructed under the Indiramma Housing Scheme will ensure that there won’t be any family without a house in the state by 2009-end, according to the CM.

Another programme that has been launched with much fanfare is the “Rajiv Arogya Sri”, a health insurance scheme for the poor. While it is being implemented in eight districts, the government plans to cover all the 23 district by December 2008. The government will pay Rs 600 crore every year as premium for the beneficiaries, who will be treated in corporate hospitals.

Opposition parties have pointed out that the government was “enriching” the corporate hospitals by diverting patients there instead of expanding government medicine to the poor.

Another major government initiative is the employment generation mission whose goal is to provide one million jobs by March 2009. According to an action plan drawn up by various departments, 3.5 lakh jobs would have been created by March 2008 and one million by March 2009. Besides, after a lapse of four years, the government has issued notifications to conduct competitive exams for recruiting 1500-2000 youth for Group I and II posts.

The cabinet has okayed the appointment of 6,237 village revenue officers apart from filling 1000-odd posts in various departments that had been held up for the last four years, mostly for lack of resources.

Encouraged by the enthusiastic response of women and farmers to “pavala vaddi” scheme, that is loans given at three per cent interest, the government is planning to extend it to students who take bank loans to finance their higher studies. The “saturation concept” that is being applied to Indiramma Housing Scheme will be applied in this scheme too, which will ensure that all eligible and deserving students applying for loans will get it to complete their courses.

If the CM has started on his journey of wooing the voters, his main opponent N Chandrababu Naidu can’t be far behind. Chandrababu has begun to wear the farmer’s head gear, sup with the poor, dance with the women, visit hostels of poor students, and share the woes of the poor patients in government hospitals. Chandrababu is going for an image make-over. The lap top-toting politician on the IT fast track of the yore is giving place to a humble friend of the poor.