Scrap YSRs schemes: Plan panel - Arogyasri Only Helping Pvt Hospitals;Power Subsidy To Industries Ridiculous

Hyderabad: In a major blow to the state government,the Planning Commission has given the thumbs down to practically every scheme launched by late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy during the last five years and more or less directed his successor K Rosaiah to do away with populist schemes and concentrate on providing quality development. At a meeting held here on Friday to finalise the states annual plan 2010-11,Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen wondered how a states 80 per cent of the population was poor and yet it recorded the highest growth in the country.While Sen led the planning panel team,the state was represented by chief secretary S V Prasad and at least 22 principal secretaries and secretaries of various departments. According to sources,every scheme from free power to farmers, power subsidy to industries, Arogyasri, pensions, loan waivers, pavala vaddi and input subsidies implemented by the YSR regime between 2004-09 came in for criticism from the central panel.All these schemes may be politically popular,but at what cost Are you not destroying the system by distributing everything free, Sen asked the state government officials and directed them to amend the schemes in such a manner that the beneficiaries pay for the services provided rather than enjoy them free.

The chief secretarys attempts to justify the subsidy schemes reportedly failed to cut any ice with the panel. Debunking the contention of the state that it has achieved high agricultural production despite providing subsidies,Sen said: You have had good rains and bumper crops in the last four years.The agriculture growth rate is shown as very high.In such a situation,why do farmers need subsidies and why sops like loan waivers,pavala vaddi scheme,free power and input subsidies.Such subsidies become necessary only when there is drought and crop failure.When everything is ok,such a huge unproductive expenditure is uncalled for.

A senior advisor from the Planning Commission reportedly observed that the free power to farmers was actually being grossly abused besides causing reckless wastage of ground water.Apart from suggesting that free power be metered and the farmer be made to pay for it,the panel told the state to do away with the power subsidy being extended to industries.The industrial power tariff in Andhra Pradesh is very low. Therefore,there is no reason to give them any more incentives, the plan panel said. Castigating the state on the manner in which money was being spent on the Arogyasri scheme,Sen said: The state spends 66 per cent of its health care budget or Rs 800 crore every year on Arogyasri.You have brought under it every disease and ailment from common cough to heart attack.And almost all the cases are being treated in corporate hospitals.Through this scheme,you are indirectly fattening the corporate hospitals and killing the state health system, is how Sen summed up YSRs pet scheme. In a sort of belated relief for the state,the Planning Commission towards the end of the meeting patted the state for the performance in areas like rural development and social welfare.
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Sibal tastes T trouble - Shifts Press Meet Venue To Avoid Slogan-Shouting Students

Hyderabad: Union minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal was on Saturday forced to shift the venue of a media conference from University of Hyderabad (UoH) to a star hotel in Gachibowli after a small group of pro-Telangana students raised slogans and thronged the venue on the university campus. Sibal was at the UoH to attend a conference of vice chancellors of pre-existing universities. Sibal left the city without sticking to his schedule of visiting English and Foreign Languages University (Eflu), which is located on the more T-volatile Osmania University campus. Earlier,the minister started his day with the inauguration of the new building of Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication at UoH.He was on his way to the south campus to address the media when around 20-30 students from nearby hostels landed at the venue,shouting slogans in support of Telangana.Since the ministers vehicle had not reached the place,the students gheraoed the vehicles of five vice chancellors who had reached the entrance of Tagore House.Sibal did not go to the venue and instead got his vehicle diverted and went back to the VCs chamber.

The students,who were under the impression that the minister was present in the Tagore House,tried to enter the building but were prevented from doing so by police and private security guards deployed on campus. The sloganeering went on for over 20 minutes and additional forces were called in from Chanda Nagar police station.The protesters,mainly Integrated PG students of the university from Chemistry and Mathematics streams,insisted on meeting Sibal before he returned to New Delhi.They claimed they were part of Telangana Students Association (TSA) of the university.Since mild tension prevailed before Tagore House till 2.45 pm,the venue of the media conference was shifted to a star hotel nearby.Sibal later brushed aside the incident,evading questions posed by the media. He, however, cancelled his public function at Eflu which was scheduled to take place at 3.30 pm.
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TDP slams JAC for expulsion


Hyderabad: A day after its expulsion from the all-party JAC on Telangana late Friday night,the TDP on Saturday alleged that the action was a conspiracy hatched by TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao.The party wanted the JAC to disclose the hidden agenda of TRS and it also decided to take up a movement on its own from now onwards.The TDP MLAs fro m Telangana met on Saturday in the TDLP office in the Assembly to decide the future course of action.Talking to the media later,TDP leader N Janardhan Reddy said that the JAC convener should have spoken with the TDP leaders before taking such a decision.He said that the all-party JAC has now become a TRS-JAC and is in virtual control of the TRS chief.Referring to JAC convener Kodandaram,the TDP leader said,"He should know whether he is strengthening or weakening the Telangana movement by taking such decisions".He wondered why the JAC convener was targeting the TDP when it was Congress which backed off from the decision to quit the assembly and parliament to create a constitutional crisis in favour of separate Telangana movement.

Earlier,TDP president Chandrababu Naidu,who was in Kurnool,held a tele conference with the Telangana MLAs and is said to have directed the MLAs to counter the JAC's decision.It is learnt that Naidu directed Telangana leaders to take up the movement by protecting the party interests. However, justifying the expulsion,Prof Kodandaram said said that the (TDP) party had failed to disclose its stand on Telangana even after repeated pleas.Talking to the media on Saturday,Kodandaram said the T-region TDP MLAs did not keep their word on resignations.Besides,its party president did not tender his apology despite his party men were involved in an attack against Telangana advocates in the city recently.
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Cong not in favour of Telangana state


Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) senior leader N Indrasena Reddy said on Saturday that the ruling Congress party was not interested in the creation of a separate Telangana state.This became clear on Friday when the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre did not allow the private member bill on Telangana to be moved by a BJP member in Parliament,he added. Addressing the partys district-level committee meeting at Armoor town in Nizmabad district on Saturday,Indrasena Reddy said the separate Telangana was a long-standing dream of the people of the region and only a national party like BJP can ensure the formation of a separate state.
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(SOURCE-TOI)