Political Diary

In his budget presentation on the first day of the second session of the new Assembly, Finance Minister K Rosaiah gave top priority to ongoing programmes — with Jalayagnam getting Rs 17,800 crore while welfare schemes, including Rs 2-a-kg rice, fee reimbursement for students and free power to farmers have been allocated Rs 5,532 crore.

The finance minister was optimistic that the State would achieve nine percent economic growth, with power generation registering 12 percent.‘‘We have tried to ensure that no priority sector and welfare programmes of the Government suffer for shortage of funds,’’ he said.

In his 30-minute speech, Rosaiah referred to implementation of two poll promises made by the Congress — increased duration of free power supply from 7 hours to 9 and enhancement of cheaper rice quota from 4 kg to 6 kg per month per person.

Amidst protest from the Opposition benches, he said: ‘‘Though our friends in the Opposition made several attractive promises, true to our tradition, we made only two important poll promises and have implemented both of them.’’ Besides the projects proposed under Jalayagnam, the finance minister announced the implementation of new irrigation projects to create an additional ayacut of 24.5 lakh acres after the restrictions imposed by the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal were lifted.

The State Government has proposed taking up new projects in recognition of the growing aspirations of the people of Mahabubnagar, Nalgonda, Prakasam, Nellore and the four Rayalaseema districts, and to ensure equitable distribution of Krishna waters.

Rosaiah described the years 2004-09, the first term of Rajasekhara Reddy government, as a ‘golden period’ for the farming sector. As against the national target of four percent for agriculture, AP achieved a growth rate of 6.4 percent, the highest in the State for any five-year period.

The finance minister said that the State Government had pleaded with the 13th Finance Commission during its visit to the State for greater flow of funds to progressive States like Andhra Pradesh on the grounds that the latter had contributed substantially to economic growth and the food security of the country.

Rosaiah claimed that the considerable increase in allocations to the Central Government’s AIBP and JNNURM programmes in the Union budget for 2009-10 would help Andhra Pradesh fill the ‘‘gap’’. There was every reason to believe that at least two to three major irrigation projects of the State would be included in the list of national projects. The State would also benefit a lot due to the 144-percent hike in allocation to the NREGP, he maintained.

The finance minister assured continuation of the Pavala Vaddi scheme, the implementation of the Abhaya Hastham pension scheme to women members (aged 60 and above) of self-help groups, completion of programmes proposed under Indiramma, extension of post-matric scholarship and tuition fee reimbursement to other economically backward students whose parents earn up to Rs 1 lakh per annum, and additional power generation of 10,992 MW (the present capacity is 12,427 MW) over the next five years.