New Delhi, July 17, 2023: The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Jana Sena Party (JSP), which are the two main Opposition parties in Andhra Pradesh, have come out against the system of ward and village volunteers that the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy-led YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government introduced in the state.
Stating that the volunteers would ensure better delivery of government services and welfare schemes at the doorstep of the beneficiaries, the Jagan government recruited 2,61,351 persons, paying them a monthly honorarium of Rs 5,000. Each volunteer is responsible for 50 beneficiary families in a municipal ward or village.
However, actor-turned-politician K Pawan Kalyan, the JSP chief, recently said the volunteers were acting as activists of the YSRCP and indulging in coercive tactics to make the beneficiaries swear allegiance to Jagan’s party. Kalyan said the YSRCP tasks volunteers to mobilise crowds to public meetings and rallies of the CM and YSRCP leaders. Kalyan also accused the volunteers of misusing the personal information collected from beneficiaries and claimed that information regarding single women or widows could be misused for human trafficking.
The JSP chief’s claims sparked a furore in the YSRCP government and some volunteers held protests at several places, objecting to the accusations. Over the weekend, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu too accused the volunteers of working to promote the YSRCP in the guise of delivery of government services.
Last Friday, speaking at the party headquarters at Mangalagiri, Naidu cautioned the volunteers not to work for the YSRCP. “You should not do the work of the party as asked of you by the CM. People require you to deliver good governance and that is what you should do, instead of indulging in politics,’’ he said. Naidu alleged that volunteers were seeking a lot of private and personal information on members of beneficiary families in the guise of enrolling them in new schemes, although such information is not necessary indianexpress.com.
Hitting back at Kalyan and Naidu, Industries Minister G Amarnath dismissed the allegations. “Volunteers are doing the good work of delivering pensions, rations, and welfare benefits at doorsteps. The system has received praise from all over the country. This kind of baseless allegations and smearing is unacceptable. People will teach Kalyan and Naidu a lesson,’’ he said. YSRCP women’s wing state president P Suneetha lodged a police complaint against Pawan Kalyan for his remarks. Education Minister Botsa Satyanarayana said Kalyan and Naidu were afraid of the volunteer system as it was bringing a good name to the state government. “Over one lakh volunteers are women. Will they misuse information of women beneficiaries? What are they talking about?” he said.
The CM’s office reacted strongly and issued a statement that not only are volunteers delivering welfare schemes to the beneficiaries, but also motivating taxpayers to pay property tax, encouraging sorting and collection of garbage, helping people avail caste and income certificates, assisting in vaccination drives, and fever and health surveys. “The volunteers’ roles and responsibilities are assigned from time to time and their performance is appraised periodically by the Mandal Parishad Development Officer (Rural areas) and Municipal Commissioner (Urban areas). Based on the performance appraisal, any volunteer can be disengaged from duty on the grounds of corruption, irresponsibility in discharging services, improper civic behaviour, moral turpitude or committed any irregularity,” read the statement.
