On Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually interact with beneficiaries of central schemes under the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra (VBSY), in a programme that is expected to clearly set the tone for the BJP’s Mission 2024.
The government is holding the Yatra across the country, with the aim of saturation coverage of its flagship schemes and to reach out to the beneficiaries. Earlier, the plan for the Yatra had come under Opposition criticism for coinciding with the recent Assembly elections, after which the Election Commission had told the Modi government to defer it in the poll-bound states. The government had also changed the nomenclature for officials would be part of the Yatra from “rath prabharis”, following objections.
At the event to be addressed by Modi, several Union ministers, MPs, MLAs and local-level representatives will join in. Thousands of beneficiaries from across the country are expected to connect virtually and through more than 2,000 VBSY vans, thousands of Krishi Vigyan Kendras and Common Service Centres.
The PM will also virtually address the Infinity Forum 2.0, the second edition of the financial technology event on Saturday being held in Gujarat’s GIFT City ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2024.
The forum is set to serve as a platform for discussion on financial services and the problems and innovations emerging from the industry. Aside from Modi, the event will also be attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal; and Union Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.
BJP meeting to pick Chhattisgarh CM
Having ousted the incumbent Congress government, the BJP’s 54 newly elected MLAs in Chhattisgarh will hold a meeting to choose the leader of its legislative party, who will become the CM, either on Saturday or Sunday, reports Jayprakash S Naidu. On Friday, the party appointed Union Ministers Arjun Munda and Sarbananda Sonowal along with party general secretary Dushyant Kumar Gautam as observers for the election of the legislative party leader; it also appointed observers to pick CMs in Rajasthan and Madhya pradesh.
While former CM Raman Singh is the natural choice as Chhattisgarh CM given his experience, Union Minister Renuka Singh, state BJP chief Arun Sao, and tribal leaders such as Vishnu Deo Sai and Kedar Kashyap are the other probable candidates. The choice won’t be easy for the party, which brought Singh back to the forefront only towards the end of the campaign after it could not find a face to match his name recall.
Congress govt’s first Assembly session in Telangana
Less than a week after the Congress’s election victory in Telangana, the new Assembly is set to convene for the first time on Saturday. The first item on the government’s agenda is to officially elect a Speaker; the party on Thursday named Dalit MLA Gaddam Prasad Kumar, who represents Vikarabad, for the post.
In the first row of the new House, after Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan named AIMIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi the Protem Speaker to administer the oath to the new MLAs as one of the senior-most legislators in the House, the firebrand BJP MLA from Goshamahal, T Raja Singh, refused to attend the session citing the AIMIM’s link to the Razakars, as reported by Sreenivas Janyala.
“No, I am not going to the Assembly (on Saturday). I am not going to take the oath if Akbaruddin is sitting on the Speaker’s chair. Akbar is the product of Qasim Razvi, the head of the (erstwhile) Nizam’s Razakar army that massacred Telangana people,” Raja Singh told The Indian Express.
Raja Singh’s protest, however, is only symbolic as Akbaruddin is to hold the post only for Saturday, with the Speaker to be picked after that.
On Thursday, Congress state unit chief Revanth Reddy was sworn in as the first Congress Chief Minister of Telangana after the state was carved out of Andhra Pradesh in 2014. Eleven other ministers were also sworn in by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan in the presence of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka became the state’s first Dalit deputy chief minister.
Revanth got to work almost immediately after taking the oath, approving the “six guarantees” the Congress had made in the run-up to the elections. On Saturday, two of these guarantees are set to be implemented – free travel in state-run RTC buses for women and enhancing the insurance amount to Rs 10 lakh under the Rajiv Arogyasri health scheme.
MCD’s special budget meeting
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), for the first time in its history, postponed its special budget meeting, initially scheduled for Friday, to December 9.
For the first time, amid the absence of a standing committee, MCD Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti will present the budget, as reported by Saman Husain. The standing committee is an 18-member decision-making body that effectively manages the corporation, providing financial approval to projects and implementing policies.
The absence of a standing committee means that general protocol cannot be followed, so no significant policy changes will be included in this year’s budget, according to sources.
After the controversial appointment of 10 nominated councillors to the standing committee by centrally appointed Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena in January, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party challenged the move in the Supreme Court, where the matter remains pending. Since then, the standing committee has remained vacant.
– With PTI inputs