AMARAVATI: In yet another proof of his impeccable reputation as a leader who walks the talk, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday launched another prestigious scheme ‘YSR Aasara’. Under the scheme, outstanding loans related to self-help groups (SHGs) will be reimbursed in four installments.
This is one of the major promises made by YS Jagan to the women of the state before the 2019 Assembly elections. He left everyone stunned when he famously announced that from the second year of his YSRCP coming to power, his government would implement and reimburse all the loans of the women members of the SHGs in the state in four installments.
As promised, he launched the ‘YSR Asara’ scheme at his camp office cum residence in Tadepalli on Friday, thus adding yet another feather in his fabled cap of fulfilled promises. Incidentally, the YS Jagan-led YSRCP government in Andhra Pradesh is already a few months into its second year in power which only goes to show the chief minister’s determined efforts to honour his commitment for the welfare of the state.
As part of the YSR Asara scheme, which will be implemented from Friday, a staggering Rs 27,168.83 crores of bank loans of 87,74,674 women members belonging to 8,71,302 self-help groups will be reimbursed in four annual installments. The money towards this will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. As part of the first installment, the YS Jagan government reimbursed on Friday a total of Rs 6,792.20 crores through respective corporations.
In a far-sighted move the state government has issued strict instructions to all the banks that these amounts should not be adjusted against the beneficiaries’ previous debts. The state government has also left it to the discretion of the benefitting women as to how this money should be utilized. With the YSRCP government making the determined effort to set the YSR Asara scheme rolling as promised, all the women beneficiaries of the SHGs are obviously elated. They feel relieved especially after being betrayed by the previous TDP government led by Chandrababu Naidu. Waiver of all loans of DWCRA women members was one of the major promises that Naidu had made before the 2014 elections. But after coming to power, he simply brushed his major pre-poll promise under the carpet to brazenly deceive all the women in the state.
Left high and dry, the SHG women members had a harrowing time till 2019 as they were unable to deal with twin troubles of repaying their debts and the mounting interest on them. Adding to this, the previous TDP government has also evaded the payment of Rs 3,036 crores towards the zero interest loans scheme. After coming to power, the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government allocated and cleared Rs 1,400 crores of pending dues related to the zero interest loan scheme. Also, with the chief minister introducing novel schemes like YSR Asara and YSR Cheyutha, the entire SHG network, which was in a disarray during the TDP rule, has started getting its breath back. In a remarkable transformation, the SHGs are now being able to clear 99.27 per cent of loans in the stipulated time.
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