Politics | The challenges ahead for Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy

Amar Devulapalli

The new Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, YS Jaganmohan Reddy, will have a tough time overcoming the challenges created by the mis-governance of his predecessor N Chandrababu Naidu. The 46-year-old founder of YSR Congress Party, took charge as CM on May 30, exactly a week after his impressive victory over the Telugu Desam Party by winning 151 of the 175 assembly seats and 22 of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.

Though he is yet to form a Cabinet, he has started reviewing the situation in various departments. Jagan has a very big task in front of him as his party has promised ‘Navaratnaalu’ (nine poll promises) to benefit different sections across the state. Apart from that, he has made several promises to the people during his 14-month Padayatra through Andhra Pradesh. His success will now depend on the availability of resources.

On the day Jagan took oath, the state treasury was left with just Rs 100 crore, and it has a debt of Rs 2,58,000 crore. Since 2014, the Naidu-led government borrowed about Rs 1,62,000 crore from various agencies and the government is running on overdrafts. As a result, the Andhra Pradesh government is now paying around Rs 20,000 crore as interest on various loans every year. The situation turned grave as the government is not in a position to pay the salaries to its employees.

Jagan, who has been fighting for the promised special category status for Andhra Pradesh, will have to press the Centre to fulfil this demand and also try to receive more central assistance to overcome the situation.

Naidu, during his five-year term, did not get the required funds from the central government, and concentrated on getting control over the execution of the Polavaram project. This prestigious project was started during the regime of YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2004 and was declared as a national project as part of the state bifurcation promise. On its completion the project will provide water for irrigation to cover several lakhs of acres in Andhra Pradesh.

Naidu who took the responsibility of construction of this gigantic project, increased the costs from about Rs 16,000 crore to more than Rs 50,000 crore. The construction had almost come to a standstill because the Centre objected to this escalation. Now, Jagan has to untie this knot and complete the project as promised before his first term ends. According to sources, the new chief minister may request the Centre to take over the execution of the project.

Jagan has to also pursue with the Centre in getting the required funds for building a capital city for Andhra Pradesh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised central assistance for building a new capital city for andhra pradesh.

The people of Andhra Pradesh voted for Naidu in 2014 with the hopes that his previous experience as CM would come handy in the execution of the Polavaram project and in the building of a new capital. However, not only has there been not much progress in the Polavaram project, but the construction of the new capital has also become a big controversy.

The Centre has so far provided Rs 1,500 crore for the new capital but the criticism is that money for this purpose has been misused in foreign tours and shoddy construction.

Around 33,000 acres of fertile cultivable land (in which four crops were cultivated in a year) was acquired for this purpose and the compensation to the land owners and the farmers is still appending. As Opposition leader, Jagan called it insider trading alleging that people close to the ruling party benefitted from the exercise. He may now review the whole project and consider returning the excess land to the farmers.

Naidu’s government, which had 10 years’ time to govern from the common capital Hyderabad, shifted in haste in 2015 and did not return the offices, which were renovated spending crores of rupees, to the Telangana State — this has also caused the state exchequer a lot of money via pending bills for maintenance, etc.

Jagan has announced a phase-wise implementation of prohibition in Andhra Pradesh which was lifted during Naidu’s previous term in 1997. He has issued orders to close all belt shops (unauthorised liquor vends that operate around an authorised liquor outlet) that run in the state and ordered to reduce the wine shops to 1,000 across AP. More than the loss of revenue, the issue is that of a social problem. Will he be able to control the liquor mafia and prevent them from smuggling illicit liquor into the state?

There is reason for hope as the relation between the chief ministers of the Telugu-speaking states is cordial. This is important because there are several contentious issues pending between the two states.

It is understood that Modi assured Jagan of all help to set things right in Andhra Pradesh when the latter called on him, after the election results. Meanwhile, Jagan has already started plugging the loopholes and implementing his poll promises by announcing the enhanced pension for old people, from Rs 1000 to Rs 2500 per month. The wages for 42,000 ASHA workers has been hiked by Rs 3,000 to Rs, 10,000 per month.

The biggest challenge for Andhra Pradesh’s new Chief Minister is to pursue the Centre to give special category status to the state.

Amar Devulapalli is a Hyderabad-based senior journalist. Views are personal.