As Praja Palana rollout begins in Telangana, BRS calls it Congress’s delay tactic
As part of the Praja Palana programme, Telangana government officials will collect application forms between December 28 and January 6 to identify eligible beneficiaries before implementing its six pre-poll guarantees.
3 min read
As the Telangana government rolled out its Praja Palana programme on Thursday to identify eligible beneficiaries before the implementation of its poll promise of six guarantees, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) accused the Congress of finding ways to delay fulfilling its promises. (Express Photo)As the Telangana government rolled out its Praja Palana programme on Thursday to identify eligible beneficiaries before the implementation of its poll promise of six guarantees, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) accused the Congress of finding ways to delay fulfilling its promises.
Government officials, through gram sabhas at the mandal level in rural areas and ward level in urban areas, will collect application forms from people between December 28 and January 6 as part of the Praja Palana programme. The programme’s application form and logo were launched by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka at the state secretariat on Wednesday.
The BRS says the Congress government will continue to receive applications till January 6, followed by delays in scrutiny, application revision, and final beneficiary list preparation. “Such delays will persist until the announcement of the election schedule for the Lok Sabha polls, and implementation of schemes will be halted citing the Model Code of Conduct,” BRS leader Dasoju Srravan Kumar said.
Kumar said the government was insulting the voters by postponing the implementation of their six guarantees when there was no need to receive fresh applications for ongoing schemes. Schemes such as the Aasara pension of Rs 2,000 a month, he said, have been benefiting nearly 44 lakh people and the government had to merely double the amount for existing beneficiaries as per its promise. He cited the example of the Rythu Bandhu scheme where Congress has promised to offer Rs 15,000 per acre per year instead of Rs 10,000 given to farmers during the last government’s term.
The BRS feels the provision of gas cylinders at Rs 500 to all ration cardholders could have been done by leveraging existing data from the Civil Supplies Corporation. “Revanth Reddy and other Congress leaders had urged people not to pay their electricity bills, promising a waiver of all bills. Instead of promptly implementing these schemes, the Congress government is adopting a protracted approach, causing unnecessary delays,” Kumar said, questioning CM Reddy’s commitment to voters.
Under six guarantees, the Congress had promised monthly financial assistance of Rs 2,500 to women and a gas cylinder at Rs 500 under the Mahalakshmi scheme; Rs 15,000 financial assistance per acre to farmers including tenant farmers, Rs 500 bonus for paddy per quintal and Rs 12,000 to agricultural labourers every year under Rythu Bharosa scheme; 200 units of free electricity to all households under Gruha Jyothi scheme; plot and Rs 5 lakh for construction of houses and 250 sq yards plot to those who fought for separate Telangana state under Indiramma Indlu scheme; and Rs 4,000 monthly pension to senior citizens, widows, single women, disabled, beedi workers, toddy tappers, weavers etc and Rajiv Arogyasri health insurance of Rs 10 lakh.
While the Praja Palana application forms aim to identify beneficiaries for five of these guarantees, there is no mention of the Yuva Vikasam scheme under which students are to be offered a ‘Vidya Bharosa’ card worth Rs 5 lakh.
You May Like
