Haryana's Nayab Singh Saini govt begins rolling out populist measures

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, June 7

After its below par performance in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the BJP government has turned to populist mode in a bid to woo voters and stave off anti-incumbency in the Assembly elections due in October.

What is in the offing

• 84 lakh beneficiaries to be covered under free travel scheme
• Tweaking of e-tendering process to mollify elected representatives
• Grievance redressal system for family ID, property ID schemes
• Special campaign to monitor implementation of central and state schemes
• Ongoing government recruitment drives to be speeded up in the next three months

The ball was set rolling with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini handing over National Common Mobility Cards(NCMCs) to poor families in Karnal under the Haryana Antyodaya Parivar Parivahan Yojana (HAPPY) to provide free travel facility in Haryana Roadways buses. Over 84 lakh beneficiaries from 24 lakh families are to be covered under the scheme in the coming weeks.

Sources said besides the NCMCs, the Nayab Singh Saini Government was set to announce more incentives for the voters to counter anti-incumbency in the October Assembly polls.

In fact, some of these issues were discussed at the BJP Legislature Party meeting held here recently. These included tweaking the e-tendering process to mollify the elected representatives, especially sarpanches, who opposed the BJP in the recent parliamentary polls.

Besides, the grievance redressal system for the Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) or the family ID scheme and the property ID scheme are to be streamlined so that the anger among the voters against the BJP, especially rural voters, could be controlled before the Assembly polls.

Meanwhile, the ongoing recruitment process for government jobs, which was stalled due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct, would be speeded up so that maximum yourhs could be recruited in the coming three months. It may be recalled that the issue of rampant unemployment was exploited by the Congress to its advantage in the recent Lok Sabha polls, which resulted in the party getting five seats.

A state government functionary said a special campaign to monitor the implementation of the Central and state schemes for the targeted beneficiaries would be launched soon. “Proper monitoring of the implementation of these schemes, which was not done due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct for the Lok Sabha polls, will stand the party in good stead in the forthcoming Assembly elections,” he said.While the BJP government is going whole hog to provide more sops to different sections of the society, party leaders claimed it was ‘routine administrative work.”

“The BJP government has worked with the motto of ‘sab ka saath, sab ka vikas’ for nearly 10 years. It is merely a coincidence that certain incentives are being provided to the underprivileged sections of society just before the elections. There is nothing populist in these new sops,” asserted Varinder Garg, joint treasurer of the Haryana BJP.