AP Treasury 100 Cr, Urgent Requirement 5000 Cr

YSR Congress Party president Ys Jagan Mohan Reddy will take oath as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister today at the Indira Gandhi Municipal Corporation (IGMC) Stadium at 12:23 pm. Governor ESL Narasimhan will administer the oath to him.

The new government faces several big challenges. For one, the treasury is almost empty. AS per reports, only Rs 100 Cr is left in the treasury right now. Mobilizing resources to continue some of the populist schemes launched between 2014 and 2019 by the TDP government, besides fulfilling the 'Navaratnalu' promises that Jagan himself had made during the poll campaign, is one of the primary challenges.

Among the promises are 'YSR Rythu Bharosa', a Rs 50,000 grant to small farmers, interest-free loans to women's self-help groups, Rs 2,000 as pension for senior citizens and widows, 2.5 million houses for the poor in five years, revamp of the Arogyasri health scheme and reintroducing the ban on liquor in a phased manner. These grandiose promises will be hard to keep for a cash-strapped state in the absence of guaranteed allocation of resources from the Centre.

Above all, the biggest challenge is to pay nearly Rs 5000 Crore salaries to Government employees day after tomorrow (June 1st). Unless the Centre releases Overdraft in two days, the Andhra Pradesh government will not be able to pay salaries and pensions for May.

The political amity between the Narendra Modi government in Delhi and the YSRC will determine the flow of funds to the state as well as Jagan's big promise of securing Special Category Status (SCS) for Andhra Pradesh.

Other big issues are the investments to build the capital Amaravati and the Polavaram project on the Godavari to generate electricity and irrigate farms. Having leveled a slew of accusations against Naidu on land acquisition, the YSRC is toying with the idea of scaling down, if not abandoning, Amaravati in favor of another site near Domakonda in Prakasam district.

Jagan's other challenge will be to identify those whom he can trust to help him run the state as a first-time chief minister.