Kakinada: Don’t fall prey to TDP’s false promises says YS Jagan Mohan Reddy

Kakinada : Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday cautioned the people of the state to be wary of the gimmicks and conspiracies perpetuated by the Opposition parties. He even alleged that unholy alliances were taking place in the state politics and efforts are on to create fissures in the family for narrow political gains.

Political circles say that this was an indirect reference to the way the Congress party had roped in Y S Sharmila who is likely to be the star campaigner during the Assembly elections in the state.

Addressing a public meeting after formally launching the upgraded Rs 3,000 monthly social pension scheme at the RMC Grounds here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister asked the people not to be carried away by the false election promises of the TDP and Jana Sena.

Recently, the Andhra Pradesh Cabinet approved the decision to raise the social security pension under the scheme from Rs 2,750 to Rs 3,000 per month. The YSR Pension Kanuka is doled out to senior citizens, widows, single women, HIV positive persons and others.

Jagan said his government was spending Rs 1,968 crore every month on social pensions and the volunteers, irrespective of public holidays, are working hard to distribute pensions at sunrise on the first of every month to keep pensioners happy. The CM noted that more than 66 lakh people will benefit from the enhanced pension. According to the CM, the southern state is spending Rs 2,000 crore per month on pensions and asked the people to recall how the situation was during the erstwhile TDP government under N Chandrababu Naidu. He said the government spent Rs 2,46,000 crore on the DBT welfare schemes in the last 55 months.

Taking potshots at Jana Sena founder Pawan Kalyan, Jagan said Pawan and Naidu together promised three cents land to all poor people in the run-up to the 2014 polls but did not fulfil it. Instead, Pawan is writing letters to the Centre alleging corruption when he provided 31 lakh housing sites and built 22 lakh homes for the poor.