Articles
Welfare Without Wealth & Work
Just so many other loans had been waived off (like as the non-performing assets of nationalized banks amounting to a few lakhs of cr of Rupees) the pavala vaddi loans list would also be waived before the next elections. We have the Jalayagnam which was initially estimated at about Rs. 70,000 cr . If at all it is completed, it would cost not less than Rs. 2 laksh cr.
Late Sri Y S Rajasekhara Reddy was hailed as the greatest benefactor of Telugu speaking people for showering all the above welfare, work or no work; return or no return of loans; completion or non-completion of the Jala Yagnam. Fortunately Dr YSR is not alive to account for the sustainability of his schemes and hence their certain discontinuance or drastic reduction. His successor, the poor Rosaiah is having to endure, the infamy of namely money to discharge, obligations under the various welfare schemes. Sri Rosaiah is not only wise but very clever. He has told his ministers that since every decision has been a cabinet decision, it is for the entire cabinet and ministers to suggest what to do.
The ministers brought forward and got sanctioned many welfare schemes. Now there is not enough money, Rosaiah is asking them to tell what could be done. That would be another collective cabinet decision so that he alone will not be abused or held responsible for reneging on the various welfare schemes and construction projects. He has the honesty and humility to admit that the financial position of the state is precarious and that bills of five years ago only are being paid to contractors and other suppliers. Clever contract must have anticipated these delays and therefore would have built into the amounts they quoted for supplies and construction the expense they would incur for raising the capital and servicing the debt. So what could be done for say Rs.100, will be done Rs. 300 and that too over a long period, causing distress to many. Worse, there are schemes where canals are dug but there are no dams; there are dams without canals; there are lift irrigation works but there is not electricity for the motors to pump up the water. All this is dead capital, which has come from surplus budgets but out of loans. No wonder that within the last six years the Government of Andhra Pradesh has added a debt of Rs. 60,000cr over the Rs.50,000 cr that has accumulated since the last six decades.
Let us see the logic of some of the welfare schemes:
2,50,000 students in A.P are entering the engineering colleges alone. Of them, about 2 lakhs are getting tuition fees paid by the government. A large number of them have zero marks in the EAMCET exam but since there are seats for certain disadvantaged sections they are admitted. In the first semester exam when they are failing, they are asking the college authorities how dare they fail them when they had been admitted with zero marks; how do they expect a zero marks admitee to pass the exam now? To fulfill inclusive growth and mete out social justice they must be passed. The college authorities are not receiving the fee reimbursement promised by the government yet they are required to pay salaries prescribed by the government. How would they get money unless they take capitation fees? But the government threatens colleges with disaffiliation if they take capitation fee. Even assuming that the government ultimately pays the tuition fee, what is it that people of this state get in return for the hundreds of crores of rupees they are paying as taxes for educating these engineers (and other professionals). First of all, cannot they find any job in private companies. Many of them are substandard. When the literacy is 65% and tens of millions of children are not having even elementary education, instead of spending the government resources on educating such people, why should the government squander its money on the lakhs of unemployable engineers, who have no obligation to serve the people. Would not a scheme of loans confined to the meritorious a better and more sensible proposition?
Take the YSR’s scheme of making one crore women, lakhpathis. They Rs. 1 lakh loan at pavala vaddi. That money would is mostly squandered or misspent. There is no evidence that these one crore women have become self -supporting and would not want any welfare further. For these people, government introduced a free pension scheme also. When government officers themselves are not getting enough pension despite their more than three decades of service, what is the justification for the State to give pension to the Rs. 1 laksh indebted women from whom it will be impossible to get back any repayment.
The NREG is a total waste of money. It is promoting idleness and arrogance among the beneficiaries. It is impossible, that in a village there could be 100 days of public work for hundreds of people, year after year. What is happening is, money is simply being distributed. Labour for agriculture is scare to get and if at all anybody is willing to work, he is demanding Rs. 300 for 3 to 4 hrs of work. They are willing to simply idle away. In a family three people are shown as independent households and often all the three are getting Rs 100 per day for 100 days.
People of this country who are honest, who are hard working, who are enterprising a who are responsible for creation of wealth are being fleeced by the ignoble politicians introducing unsustainable welfare schemes. No wonder there is enough inducement and moral justification for the real wealth creators to avoid and even evade taxes. They are even tempted to take out their money and keep them in safe havens in places like Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Cayman Islands, St. Kitts and such places. It is reported that Rs. 70 lakhs cr of rupees are thus squirreled away from this country and are lying abroad in safe havens. Many people including ministers are involved in this ignoble and adventurous accomplishment, politicians made noises before the elections. All are agreed to keep quite after the elctions. This ignoble political leadership is inflecting insufferable economic pains on this country. We see that daiva bhakti (that is belief and puja to gods) is tremendously increasing, may be, in the hope of exoneration of the sins they are committing. Their bhakti is to their gods and to themselves but not to this country. That is, desa bhakti (patriotism and love for this land and its people) is totally lacking. Therefore the improvident situation is making this country an easy prey to foreign powers into whose hands our government seems to be already passing.