YSR Congress party leader and Vijayawada Mayor Rayana Bhagyalakshmi on Wednesday alleged that Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was looting DWCRA women’s hard-earned savings under the guise of welfare schemes.
Speaking to reporters at Tadepalli, Bhagyalakshmi said the coalition government was shamelessly turning women’s deposits into loans with interest instead of giving them free financial aid, as was done under Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s leadership.
She alleged that the government had diverted Rs 1,000 crore from Stree Nidhi to fund NTR Kalyanalakshmi and Vidyalakshmi schemes. Instead of giving the money as direct benefit, the women were being forced to take loans at 4% interest.
She questioned how Naidu could boast of such schemes when they were nothing but deceitful traps against poor women.
Bhagyalakshmi warned that the diversion of DWCRA savings would cripple Stree Nidhi itself and threaten its existence.
She said Jagan’s government had spent Rs 427 crore on Kalyanamasthu and Shaadi Tohfa, directly crediting beneficiaries’ accounts, while Naidu had converted the same schemes into debt traps.
She reminded that YSRCP had given Rs 4,969 crore to nearly 3.86 crore DWCRA beneficiaries under zero-interest loans, while Naidu during 2014–19 betrayed women with false promises of a Rs 25,571 crore loan waiver.
She accused the coalition of repeating the same betrayal by failing to release pending dues and ignoring promises like Rs 18,000 under Stree Nidhi and Rs 1,500 monthly assistance for women.
“Chandrababu Naidu is cheating women once again by stealing their savings and burdening them with loans,” she declared.