Reaching out to the unreached, the TRS manifesto, unveiled by Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao, has targeted direct benefit to over 1.2 crore more people in the State.
This will be in addition to about 1.5 crore beneficiaries who had already been reaping the benefits under the multiple State-sponsored schemes. With much more expected from the final manifesto due to be released after Dasara, the TRS, thanks to its strong loyalty enjoyed by the State’s electorate, stands in great advantage over its rivals in the run-up to the polls.
The projected total population of Telangana is about 3.8 crore as per 2018 estimations of the Election Commission of India.
Chief Minister and TRS president K Chandrashekhar Rao on Tuesday announced 10 major schemes revealing partial manifesto of the TRS. Notable among them are farm loan waiver, unemployment dole, relaxation of age limit for old-age pensions, honorarium for Rythu Samanvaya Samithis (RSS) members, double bedroom houses, subsidised loans for women Self Help Groups (SHGs) for setting up food processing units, among others.
Loan waiver
Nearly 45.5 lakh of 72 lakh-odd farmers availed crop loans and around 42 lakh farmers obtained loans of less than Rs 1 lakh. The Chief Minister announced that the TRS government will waive all these loans. Further, about 49.49 lakh farmers in the State are already benefiting from Rythu Bandhu benefits and the TRS party has promised to enhance input assistance under the scheme from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per acre, per annum. Farmers who are members of Rythu Samanvaya Samithis numbering 1.62 lakh will also receive honorariums.
Under the social welfare schemes, the decision to hike Aasara pensions from Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,016 for differently-abled persons and from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,016 for other beneficiaries would directly benefit nearly 40 lakh existing beneficiaries. In addition, another 8 lakh people will benefit from the old-age pensions following relaxation of age limit from 65 years to 57 years proposed by the TRS after returning to power.
In-depth research
The TRS Manifesto Committee worked out the schemes after in-depth study of the government records and the Integrated Household Survey (IHHS) conducted by the State government among others. As per the IHHS estimations, there are about 11-12 lakh unemployed youth in the State who will now benefit from the unemployment dole scheme (Rs 3,016 per month). Similarly, around 8.25 lakh families from poor families are in need of houses under the double-bedroom housing scheme. The TRS government’s plans to facilitate establishment of at least one food processing unit for every two Assembly constituencies, is also likely to benefit at around 2-3 lakh women of 70 lakh members of women SHGs.
As per government records, the TRS government has extended welfare benefits to about 1.5 crore individuals directly, where about 45 per cent of the State population had benefited from a minimum of three TRS government programmes. In many cases, the individuals have reaped benefits of 15 government schemes.
In fact, individual beneficiaries of various government programmes when tallied, total up to a massive 6,92,46,598, which is nearly twice the 3.8 crore population in the State. The State government is estimated to have pumped in a whopping Rs 2,18,377 crore into these 40 major schemes and programmes in the last four and half years.
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