Hyderabad: After launching an input subsidy scheme for farmers, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP)-run Andhra Pradesh government on Friday announced that it will give a cash incentive of ₹10,000 to car and auto drivers every year in the state. The ‘YSR Vahana Mitra’ scheme will be launched on 4 October and self-employed auto and taxi drivers will be eligible under it.
The decision to start the scheme was based on chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s election promise during his 3,600 kilometre ‘Pada Yatra’ (walkathon) he undertook before coming to power, as part of election campaign for the 2019 state (and Lok Sabha) polls. “The motto of ‘YSR Vahana Mitra’ is that the amount could be useful for the drivers to repair, vehicle fitness, insurance expenses,” said a press release from Reddy’s office.
It added that the AP Transport department has sent ‘YSR Vaahana Mitra’ applications to all the district collectors and that the verification process for the same will be completed by 30 September. So far, the state government has received over 1.75 lakh applications, out of which a little over 93,000 have been verified. The applications have been received online and offline to make the process easy for the applicants, stated the release.
Prior to this, the YSRCP government, after coming to power this year, launched the ‘Rythu Bharosa’ input subsidy scheme for farmers under which the beneficiaries will get ₹12,500 a year. The scheme was launched after scrapping the previously launched (under the previous Telugu Desam Party) ‘Annadata Sukhibhava’ input subsidy programme.
On the same day, a study report by an expert committee also submitted a report to Reddy, which said that using electrical vehicles (EVs) will be beneficial to the State Road Transport Corporation (APRTC) and it will be environmental friendly apart from saving fuel costs. The committee recommended that the state government introduce a large number of EVs in the corporation as well.
“By taking loans at lower rates of interest from national and international organizations, electric vehicles can be brought in APRTC as soon as possible so that fuel can be saved,” a press from the state government quoted the committee on Thursday. The report by the committee also suggested to use solar power instead of wind power.
