The new Congress government in Telangana is set to face an uphill task in fulfilling the six guarantees that the party made to the farmers, women, and youth of the State during its election campaign.
For instance, the Mahalakshmi scheme guarantees women ₹2,500 every month, gas cylinders for ₹500 (nearly half the current price), and free travel in public buses. Also, on the lines of the Kalyana Lakshmi scheme of the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government, the Mahalakshmi scheme promises ₹1 lakh each and 10 gms of gold to women from economically weaker sections for marriage.
A major guarantee is Rythu Bharosa, a farmers’ investment support scheme, under which the Congress has promised ₹15,000 per acre to 58.33 lakh farmers. The BRS government had implemented the Rythu Bandhu scheme providing ₹5,000 per acre and had made a budgetary provision of a little over ₹15,000 crore for the current fiscal. Increasing the investment support by 50% would mean that the Congress government would have to spend an additional ₹7,000 crore every year towards the scheme in addition to the ₹12,000 an acre it has promised to the 30 lakh tenant farmers. The outgoing government did not consider tenant farmers while implementing Rythu Bandhu.
