Myth of welfare in Budget: PCC chief

Vijayawada: President of Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) Gidugu Rudra Raju flayed the State government for hoodwinking people in the name of Budget. The PCC chief in a statement released from the Congress State headquarters Andhra Ratna Bhavan here on Friday said that there were numbers and numbers in the Budget but there was no development. He remarked that the government relied on the numbers even in the case of welfare also. The YSRCP government has owned the welfare schemes implemented by the past governments and boasting that they were its own.

The economic principle accepted around the world was that the welfare and development should go hand in hand. The government was implementing welfare schemes by raising loans wherever possible which would ultimately destroy the economy of the State. Rudra Raju said that Polavaram project, capital city, infrastructure and self-sufficiency in power sector were basic needs of the State but the government had no funds to invest in these sectors. The Budget relies more on the loans and Central grants, he said.

The PCC chief demanded a white paper on the State's economy to make crystal clear about the revenue and expenditure of the State to the people. The Congress was not against welfare schemes but against rising of loans to implement welfare schemes. The economy of the State is in a bad condition that it could not pay the salaries to the government employees in time. Under these circumstances, the industrialists would never set foot in the State with their investments.ere is not even minimal infrastructure in the newly formed districts, he said.