Visakhapatnam: ‘Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime’, goes the adage.
Although political party leaders highlight this when it comes to defining the freebies and doling out unlimited welfare schemes, a majority of them come up with their own set of freebies and welfare schemes while drafting the party manifesto.
However, political analysts and financial experts opine that such freebies culture will only end up making people lethargic besides draining the exchequer.
Driven by poll fervour, it may not be surprising if political parties doll out tailored welfare schemes to garner the attention of the voters.
Feeding the netizens with a tinge of humour, a host of ‘tweaked’ welfare schemes are circulating on social media platforms.
As a part of ‘Gontuloke gorumudda’ (a morsel of food in the throat), a political party intends to supply cooked meals at the doorstep. Another scheme ‘liver loke liquor’ (liquor that heads straight to the liver) facilitates a dedicated pipeline to each household for the supply of liquor.
Drawing the attention of the devotional voters, a scheme christened as ‘padalavadake punyam’ aims at bringing deities at home through processions. ‘Chetilo chatvaram’ is another interesting scheme that provides smart phones to each household along with free internet facility plus access to OTT platforms.
The scheme ‘pidakala meeda padakalu’ (bed over cow dung cakes) intends to provide a grand and hassle-free final journey for the deceased persons.
In addition, ‘needa bratukulaki yenda thodu’ (free foreign tour for those lazing around at home), ‘vrudda yuvataki baddaka ratna awards’ (aged youths to get lethargic ratna awards) are the other list of customised schemes that pop on social media.
Going forward, one need not wonder if political parties come up with such tweaked schemes to seek the support of the voters.