NITI Aayog agenda on freebies may put AP at discomfort

Vijayawada: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair NITI Aayog's Governing Council meeting on August 7, where issues related to agriculture, health and economy will be discussed, official sources said on Thursday.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, who is all set to attend the meeting, may, however, not feel so comfortable with the agenda set by the NITI Aayog.

The issue of freebies is likely to figure in the meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been of late talking against it and even the Supreme Court has directed the Centre to constitute a committee to study the freebies offered by the State governments in their manifesto with an eye on trapping the voters.

This meeting assumes importance, particularly for States like Andhra Pradesh, which have been in the news for all wrong reasons about its crumbling finances. The whopping borrowings that the State has been undertaking and it is not so healthy practice of raising loans on Corporations have already struck a discordant chord with the Union Finance Ministry.

The Centre has been cautioning the States to check its tendency to swell its loans and borrowings through various means to meet its welfare promises made during the election campaign and AP tops the list in this regard.

Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the financial experts and Opposition outing his performance as the best among the Chief Ministers. The AP Government sports its Direct Benefit Transfers as the best in the country and asks others to emulate it.

Of late, it has started attacking the Centre too over the issue of borrowings to claim that AP has been doing a better job.

The agenda of the NITI Aayog this time is very clear about effecting changes in the country's agriculture, health and economic sectors. This could see the Prime Minister reiterate his caution on capping the borrowings and inculcating financial discipline. AP is in no position to suggest any positive input to the Aayog in any of the three subjects. The Centre had pulled up AP for lagging in implementing the Covid-19 protocols and failing in conducting the required tests.