CM YS Jagan to launch YSR Aasara on Sept 11

The YSR Aasara scheme, which would be launched by Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday is expected to benefit nearly eight lakh women Self Help Groups (SHGs). Under the scheme, the outstanding loans of the SHGs will be reimbursed. A sum of `6345.87 crore will be released for the purpose.

According to the Chief Minister, the scheme will free lakhs of women from poor families who were forced to take loans at exorbitant rates of interest to meet their requirements and they were stuck in a vicious cycle of debt trap as they could not repay the loans. These women had to take loans to cope up with the rising cost of education, health care, elderly care, daily needs and other emergencies. All loans taken by this section up to April 11, 2019 would be reimbursed in four installments.

This would cost the government Rs 27,168 crore. It is further said that the women who would become free from the debt trap under this scheme will not have to take loans again. They can use this money for any purpose in future if they had already repaid their loans in full or partially.

The government has also made it clear that the decision on how to spend this amount is left to the women and that the bankers should not deduct that amount from old debts. It is reported that the women's debts have skyrocketed and interest rates on them have risen. As a result, about two lakh savings societies at that time were stamped as non-performing assets (NPAs) with banks. Nearly 5 lakh communities which were supposed to be in A grade have fallen to C and D grades.

In addition, the then TDP government evaded zero interest payments by Rs 3,036 crore. YS Jagan paid Rs 1,400 crore last year under the zero interest scheme when the government came to power. Recently, the system of thrift societies has fallen back into the groove due to schemes like YSR Asara and YSR Cheyuta. With this, 99.27 per cent of the loans are now being repaid on time.

On the other hand, YSR Cheyutha scheme was launched by chief minister in the last month to provide financial assistance to SC, ST, BC and minority women above 45 years of age through the scheme. The chief minister while launching the scheme in the last month has said that he had seen the plight of women who do not have financial support during his Padayatra and decided that the government should provide financial assistance to women between the ages of 45-60.

The scheme will benefit 24 lakh to 25 lakh poor women, which is expected to cost between Rs 18,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore over four years. Also, CM Jagan wrote a letter to women that the decision was taken after seeing the plight of women in the state during his Padayatra and the financial assistance they provide would also suggest appropriate ways to invest and do business.

With the new scheme pertaining to women, women could get out of the financial problems and would not be forced to go back to taking loans at high-interest rates once again.