Naidu asks people to donate a day's income every month for capital construction. Will it help?

Naidu asks people to donate a day's income every month for capital construction. Will it help?
Naidu asks people to donate a day's income every month for capital construction. Will it help?
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The News Minute | March 23, 2015 | 4:40 pm ISTAndhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has appealed to the public to donate a day's income, every month, for helping out with the construction of the new capital. Speaking at a public function, on the eve of Ugadi, the first Telugu New Year celebration for divided AP, he added that the government would announce details of donations and hoped that the people would contribute for the new capital.This move comes a few days after The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) informed the state that it had slipped into an overdraft after it crossed the Rs 1,540 crore mark set for loans from the bank.The RBI may also freeze all financial transactions of the state in a bid to recover the borrowed amount, if the situation worsens.Read - RBI may freeze financial transactions of AP to recover borrowed money We asked a few readers to share their views and tell us if this will help.R Venkatakrishnan - Chartered Accountant.The SEBI guidelines on the issue of Muni Bonds to facilitate the creation of SMART Cities is a welcome move and it need not be restricted to just these. While the conditions may be difficult to fulfill by many municipal corporations, it will at least permit the responsible ones, raise funds for development projects. It will also create an opportunity for some elbow room for some to create SPV or escrows for development projects that have opportunity for local citizens to pay for utilities or facilities. The listing feature will also create the much needed liquidity for the investors.While the Andhra Pradesh government's desire to get public to participate in the building of the state capital is good, such a move to build it out of public donations does not make it responsible or accountable. This is no better than waiving loans or interest. We are not creating accountability in the process. What is possibly required is low interest rates with sweeteners in the form of redemption premiums. Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and team need to wear their corporate hat and think disruptively. The need of the hour is to think innovatively and move away from the beaten path.Some believe that this move will have more political impact than in terms of revenue. Krupakar Manukonda - Native of coastal Andhra and a software engineer and market risk analyst by profession Naidu is always known for participatory democracy. In his earlier stint as CM he introduced programs like 'Shramadanam' (donation of labour) and 'Jhanma Boomi' which were highly decentralized participatory schemes and intended to attach people to the government. A capital city through crowd sourcing is also his way of making this sound like a collective effort by the people."However, he adds that Naidu is aware that it will not achieve much in terms of revenue, but will gain him political ground.1. During land acquisition he faced obstacles from farmer groups, YSRCP and he was losing the support a bit and he wants to reverse it.2. When he was elected as CM, it was purely on sub-national spirit, that we (AP) should also build own our state so as to compete with Telangana (Hyderabad) and he came across as a capable leader doing that. He wants to keep that spirit alive and keep state/capital building as a core contentious issue.3. He wants to play a sense of victim-hood and perhaps he has every right to do that. Modi did make lot of promises during election campaign but nothing was given to the state. Instead of projecting this as his failure to get resources from the union government, he wants to project it as a collective victim-hood and bias against the stateA V S Sudhir - IT ProfessionalI don't see anything wrong with this move. Government employees are asked to donate a day's salary towards PM/CM relief funds and the brazenness with which Andhra Pradesh was divided is no less than a calamity for the state, primarily on the Andhra side. I belong to the state of Andhra Pradesh, brought up outside but do have an attachment and can feel the pain of the people.However, this must be dealt very carefully by Naidu. He was criticized in his last tenure as CM that he diverted all funds towards Hyderabad and focused only on the city leaving behind the rest of the state. He was one of the main reasons for making Hyderabad a cash cow that it is now. These funds must be utilized not just for the state capital but also towards other parts of the state.One more thing is accountability of all the money that is collected in this manner. Pool it along with the Centre's funds and put out a balance sheet showing where my money went. Also, ever since Vijayawada has been announced as the probably state capital, there are hundreds of people who have hung on to their lands in the hope that they can bargain them for a pricey deal. This money must not go to the real estate greed.The division of AP has been of advantage to one side of the state and many support this opinion. If there is a portal the CM opens up to accept donations towards state building, am sure there will be many enthusiasts like me who are willing to donate.While the state was heavily banking on financial support from the centre, a row of disappointing packages has resulted in Naidu doing all he can to ensure that the state does not hit another hurdle.TweetFollow @thenewsminute

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