YSRCP releases manifesto, promises to increase pension

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister and YSRC party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy released the party’s election manifesto for 2024 on Saturday and asserted that his party’s manifesto is grounded in reality and his promises are implementable.

Addressing mediapersons at the CM’s camp office, Jagan said their election manifesto has only practical things that can be doeable. “I don’t want to compete with TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in spewing lies. I will only make promises that can be kept. In 2019, we promised the Navarathanalu programmes, and 99.4 % of those promises were fulfilled,” he explained.

Jagan, who explained what has been implemented in the last 58 months and compared it with the previous TDP alliance manifesto (2014), said facts and figures speak for themselves, as to who was sincere in implementing the promises made.

“We’ve deposited Rs 2.68 lakh crore directly into beneficiaries’ accounts through DBT (direct benefit transfer) and Rs 1.78 lakh crore through non-DBT methods. Despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic and revenue losses that happened thereafter, we never made any excuses and meticulously executed our manifesto with a smile,” he said

Elaborating on the highlights of his two-page party manifesto 2024, which are broadly divided into nine categories –social security, Development, Education, Health, Agriculture, Higher Education, Nadu-Nedu, Housing for the poor, and empowerment — the YSRC chief said every scheme being implemented in the last 58 months will be continued.

He said social welfare pensions will be enhanced to Rs 3,500 from the present Rs 3,000. “As it would take time to get the financial situation stabilized and ensure growth, the social security pensions will be enhanced to Rs 3,250 in 2028 and to 3, 500 in 2029. In the last five years, we have spent Rs 88,650 crore for social security pensions with an average annual expenditure of Rs 24,000 crore,” he explained.