Manifestos which make people beggars

The manifestos announced by TDPand PRP on Thursday make one wonder whether these parties are treating the voters as beggars, making them dependant on the government for every paisa.
Particularly, the Telugu Desam manifesto is horrible. Instead of empowering the people to earn a better livelihood, the TD says, if it comes to power, it would pay Rs 1500 to the poor families and Rs 1,000 to middle class families per month. The amount will be credited to the bank accounts of the people and they don’t even have to go banks to withdraw the amount; the government will give them electronic cash cards to draw the amount from ATMs. What does it mean? The people will become beggars and they don’t even have to beg at the doorstep, but can get the dole directly at their doorstep. What an idea, Babuji?
And Naidu promised colour televisions to all the poor people. What do they do with these TVs when they don’t have anything to make their both ends meet? Most of the poor dwell in huts without power connection. So, what’s the use of TVs for them? Will they be able to have cable connection or Dish facility? Can they afford power charges and monthly cable charges? How can they have entertainment with empty stomach? During his regime, Naidu provided LPG connections to the poor people under Deepam scheme. But the beneficiaries sold them away, as they could not afford to buy LPG cylinders at a high cost? Where is the guarantee that the TV sets do not go back to showrooms?
Coming to PRP’s election manifesto, Chiranjeevi promises 10-hour free power supply to farmers, which is practically impossible given the power availability now. Do farmers really need 10 hour supply? All that they want is quality power for seven hours. Secondly, he announces “Pasupu-Kunkuma” scheme for girls, under which certain amount would be deposited in the name of a girl child, who would be getting Rs 1 lakh at the age of 18 years. This is again a flop scheme, which was already tested. And the scheme to supply all cooking provisions for just Rs 100 would cost a heavy burden on the State exchequer.
First of all, it is doubtful whether the people would believe all these schemes of TD and PRP. The Congress is yet to come out with its manifesto, but indications are that the government would only promise to the people to carry on all the existing schemes till the saturation level is reached. The YSR government was able to convince the people that it was doing some productive job. Whether the people would get attracted to the new manifestos or believe the YSR’s government is what these elections will prove.