Can Naidu keep his century of promises?

Rivals claim they are made to lure voters and are not practical

The 'endless' promises made by Telugu Desam Party (TDP) president N Chandrababu Naidu during his 208-day 'Vastunna Meekosam' padayatra covering 2187 km in the State, not only shocked all political parties, but also raised questions on the implementation of the promises, in the wake of weak financial position of the State even if A TDP came to power.

Naidu had scored a 'century' in making promises during his padayatra, which includes waiver of all farmers' loans taken during the Congress rule, ensure remunerative prices to all farmers, free education from KG to PG level for poor students, Rs 1,000 per month for unemployed youth and students, Rs 1,500 pension for physically handicapped , BC Sub-Plan, nine-hour free power for agriculture sector, separate agriculture budget, Rs 2,500 crore separate budget for minorities and Rs 500 crore budget for the welfare of the Brahmin community.

Naidu, at the public meeting on the last day of his padayatra in Visakhapatnam on April 27, announced that his first signature would to waiver agriculture loans. A Interestingly Naidu had made 120 promises within 100 days of being in office when he first came to power for in 1995.

While the Congress chief whip G Venkatarmana Reddy stated that to fulfil Naidu's promises it would require at least three years budget, YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) spokesperson, G Ramachandra Rao said to implement the promises made by Naidu, at least Rs 2 lakh crore, almost double of the annual State budget would be needed. Without Centre's help, it was not possible to write off farmers' loans, he said and added that the promises made by Naidu were non implementable.

TDP senior leaders said that the 'freewheeling' assurances made by Naidu were not difficult to achieve and assured that all the promises were calculated in financial terms. Party senior leader T Devendar Goud and E Peddi Reddy remarked that the five year term of the government was sufficient to implement all the promises, keeping in mind the present economic conditions of the State.

They said that the boom in State's economic growth in the last four years would help to overcome the financial crisis and meet the requirements of all schemes in the next five years.