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Highest allocations in AP Budget for community welfare and women

With an eye on the elections slated next year, Andhra Pradesh government made the highest allocations to community welfare including…

SNS | Hyderabad | March 17, 2023 3:04 pm

Highest allocations in AP Budget for community welfare and women

Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath [Photo: ANI]

With an eye on the elections slated next year, Andhra Pradesh government made the highest allocations to community welfare including SCs, STs, BCs and minorities and women as the state Finance Minister presented an annual Budget of Rs 2,79,279 crore with revenue expenditure estimated at Rs 2,28,540 crore and capital expenditure at Rs31,061 crore for the 2023-24 financial year.
The revenue deficit was calculated around Rs 22,316 crore and the fiscal deficit was estimated at around Rs 54,587 crore. The day also saw Speaker Tammineni Sitaram suspending 14 TDP MLAs for disrupting the presentation of the Budget, the second time in a row since the Budget Session began on March 14.

Just like previous years, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSRCP government kept its focus firmly on welfare schemes, more so as elections to the state are due in May next year. The highest allocation in the Budget of about 27 per cent was for community welfare schemes for the upliftment of SC, ST, BC and minorities followed by women who were allocated 11 per cent of the Budget outlay.

Throughout its tenure, the YSRCP government has wooed women as loyal voters and have reached out through various schemes like Amma Vodi where mothers of school going children received financial assistance of Rs 15,000 in their accounts through DBT. Land Pattas too have been given in the name of the women in the family. Overall there was a 10 per cent increase in allocation of welfare schemes which got the maximum share of the Budget with Rs 54,228 crore.

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Finance Minister Buggana Rajendranath dismissed apprehensions about the financial health of the state in his speech. He said that in 2018-19 (during TDP regime) AP was ranked 22nd in the country with respect to growth of GSDP at constant prices while currently it is ranked first, registering a healthy growth of 11.43 per cent despite the pandemic.

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“It also shows that while the commitments of the government have been met under extremely challenging circumstances, the government has prioritised and safeguarded financial stability and the growth prospects of the state,” claimed Rajendranath in his Budget speech.

The Opposition legislators began raising slogans at the very outset of the Budget speech. The Speaker appealed to the MLAs to maintain decorum of the House and raise the issues later. Chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy then intervened and urged the Speaker saying that they intend to disrupt the House so that it would be difficult to follow the Budget speech. The Speaker agreed it was a serious misconduct and suspended the 14 TDP MLAs.

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