The BJP says the Congress plan to accord cabinet rank status to party functionaries tasked with monitoring government schemes violates stipulations
Karnataka’s ruling Congress, in its preparations for the Lok Sabha election, is looking to leverage the government’s big-ticket guarantee programmes to reach out to both voters and party workers. While the Congress intends to hold conventions for the beneficiaries, it has now come up with a plan to create various committees to monitor the implementation of the five welfare guarantees, a move that will also serve to energise the party cadre, who will be appointed to these committees.
On January 10, chief minister Siddaramaiah announced that a three-tier mechanism of committees, comprising party workers, will be set up. At the state level, there will be a committee comprising 31 members, headed by a president, who will be accorded cabinet rank, and five vice-presidents with rank of state minister. The second tier will be at the district level, where the committees will comprise 21 members, and finally, the committees at the assembly constituency level will have 11 members each.
“These committees will be formed within a week and start functioning immediately,” Siddaramaiah said in Bengaluru, after a party meeting to discuss poll preparations. ”They will monitor the implementation of the five guarantees.”
On January 12, the Siddaramaiah government rolled out its fifth election promise Yuva Nidhi—a monthly unemployment dole of Rs 3,000 for graduates and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders. The other four guarantees are already launched: Gruha Jyothi (free power to households), Gruha Lakshmi (monthly allowance for women heads of family), Anna Bhagya (additional five kilos of rice to ration card members) and Shakti (free bus rides for women).
“Every month, around 12 million families are receiving benefits worth Rs 4,000-5,000. This is called Universal Basic Income,” the chief minister said, adding that 43 million out of Karnataka’s population of 70 million are benefitting from the schemes. “We are spending Rs 38,000 crore this fiscal, and next year, we will be spending Rs 58,000-59,000 crore. The important thing is that it is all going directly to beneficiaries’ accounts, without any middlemen.” The monitoring committees, he added, were aimed at making the schemes more effective.
Questioning the move, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai of the BJP pointed out that an entire government machinery, starting from the village accountant right up to the chief secretary, was already in place to monitor government schemes. “Has the existing system collapsed? Does the government require Congress workers to supervise the implementation of the guarantee schemes?” asked Bommai, accusing the Congress of taking political advantage of its guarantee schemes.
The BJP will launch a legal battle against the move. Besides, according cabinet rank status to the functionaries was also in violation of rules, Bommai said.