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Journalism of Courage
In an election that has been fought by Congress on the strength of its schemes, and countered by the BJP with “Modi guarantee”, the Prajapati family spanning four generations in the Bagru Assembly seat on the outskirts of Jaipur is, what both would consider, a “model”.
The members of the OBC Above Poverty Line (APL) family include Bhuli Devi, the 95-year-old matriarch; her son and daughter-in-law Sur Gyan Prajapat, 62, and Surkha Devi, 60; and their six children, all married. The three sons with their families live with their parents and grandmother in a 15-member joint family.
Gehlot’s welfare push began well ahead of the elections, and over the past two-three years, he has created the image of a leader dedicated to uplifting the state. The Congress manifesto promised to continue its schemes, bring in more, and seven more “guarantees”.
At his Chittorgarh rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that a BJP government would not stop the schemes if they were doing good. “I assure the people of Rajasthan that even though Gehlotji’s government may have started the schemes, the BJP will not stop any… but will try to make them better. And this is Modi’s guarantee.”
The 15 members of the Prajapati family have benefited from both state and Central schemes, and have largely good things to say about both, especially the Gehlot government’s.
They are more reluctant to disclose their preference for either the Congress or the BJP.
The members of the family, of which six are minors, are covered under the state government’s Rs 25 lakh Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme and the Centre’s National Food Security Act (NFSA), which entitles them to Rs 5 kg wheat per head per month.
The Rs 2 per kg they paid earlier is currently waived off. As for the health scheme, the family is glad they haven’t had to avail it yet.
Besides this, the two buffaloes owned by the family are insured for Rs 40,000 each under the Mukhyamantri Kamdhenu Pashu Bima Yojana. The family has a single electricity connection in Sur Gyan’s name, payment for 100 units of which is waived off every month.
NFSA: Rajasthan has a ceiling of 4.46 crore NFSA beneficiaries of which, as of February 2023, 4.40 crore were covered under the Act.
Chiranjeevi Health Insurance: Between May 1, 2021, and June 30, 2023, 45.54 lakh persons submitted 89.82 lakh claims worth Rs 5,039 crore, of which Rs 4,708 crore were approved as of July this year.
Kamdhenu Yojana: The Gehlot government allotted Rs 750 crore for 2023-24, with the aim of benefiting more than 20 lakh farmers.
Free electricity: As per Gehlot, an estimated 1.04 crore out of 1.19 crore families of the state were to get free domestic electricity while remaining 15 lakh domestic consumers would continue to get rebate of Rs 300-750 in 2022-23. The estimated expense under this scheme for 2022-23 is Rs 7,000 crore.
Bhuli Devi gets a widow pension of Rs 1,000 per month, and received a smartphone with Internet connectivity as part of the government’s free smartphone scheme for women.
Widow pension: As per last available data, there were 18.22 lakh beneficiaries of the state’s Ekal Nari pension and 3.98 lakh of the Centre’s widow pension scheme in Rajasthan.
Smartphone scheme: Only girls / women are eligible for this scheme. Of the target of 1.3 crore women, smartphones have been given to 40 lakh under five categories, one of them being widows.
Sur Gyan and Surkha get a senior citizen pension of Rs 1,000 per month. Earlier this year, they got about Rs 15,000 each, under the Centre’s PM Fasal Bima Yojana for different pieces of their land.
Sur Gyan has applied for the Centre’s PM Kisan Samman Nidhi for farmers, while Surkha has applied for a state government-run subsidy for fencing her farmland, hoping to get at least Rs 20,000 as part of the scheme.
The elderly couple and their sons Puran and Vishnu have also received an Annapurna Food packet each, which contains 1 kg each of gram pulses, sugar and iodized salt, 1 litre soybean refined edible oil, 100 gram each of chili powder and coriander powder, and 50 grams turmeric powder.
Given their agrarian background, the Prajapat family says it is grateful for both the state and Central government schemes.
Old age pension: The state has 55.87 lakh old age pensioners (including 2.49 lakh old age farmer pensioners) while 8.87 lakh receive old age pension through a Central scheme.
PM Fasal Bima Yojana: For financial year 2022-23, as of March 2023, the Centre had paid Rs 3,382 crore to farmers in Rajasthan while Rs 1,279 crore were pending.
PM Kisan Samman Nidhi: In financial year 2022-23, there were 72.59 lakh beneficiaries of PM-Kisan in Rajasthan, who received Rs 6,000 each.
Farm fencing: The Rajasthan government allotted Rs 200 crore for one lakh farmers for the year 2023-24.
Annapurna Food Packet: As per Gehlot, the target is over 1.04 crore families each month. Apart from NFSA families, those who received financial assistance during Covid are also eligible.
Puran runs a mobile shop. The couple’s daughter Jyoti received a bicycle two years ago when she entered Class 9, with all girls who study beyond Class 8 eligible for the scheme, now running for about a decade-and-a-half.
The parents have also applied for Gargi Puraskar, where a monetary reward is given to meritorious Class 10 pass students, as well as for a Scooty for Jyoti under a different scheme.
Puran has a complaint that the bicycle was of bad quality and lasted barely six months. Instead of the bicycle, he says, the government could have given an option to the beneficiaries to take money instead.
About the Annapurna Food packet, Sonu says it had poor quality chilli powder, salt and turmeric.
Free Bicycle scheme: The Gehlot government earmarked Rs 140 crore under this scheme for 2022-23. Till 2020, 26.5 lakh girl students had been given cycles since the inception of this scheme. Last distribution was in November 2021.
Gargi Puraskar: In 2021-22, 4.2 lakh Class 10 girls received Rs 3,000 under this.
Scooty scheme: Free scooty is given to girl students meeting certain criteria under the Kalibai Bhil Yojana and Devnarayan Yojana. For 2023-24, the state had announced increasing beneficiaries from 20,000 to 30,000.
Vinod, 30, who runs an e-mitra, to help people with government schemes, is married to Basanti Devi. Earlier, Basanti got Rs 750 per month as unemployment allowance for two years, the maximum number of years permissible under the scheme. They also get a subsidised gas cylinder at Rs 500 per month. Vinod’s daughter gets free schooling under the Right to Education.
Unemployment allowance: For FY 2022-23 (till February 28), the state had given Rs 546 crore as unemployment allowance.
Indira Gandhi gas cylinder subsidy: For FY 2022-23, the Gehlot government had earmarked Rs 500 crore for this scheme, aimed at benefiting 76 lakh families. Of these, at least 14 lakh had benefited from this scheme as of June.
RTE: In 2022-23, there were 2.75 lakh admissions under RTE in Rajasthan.
Vishnu, who has a private job, is married to Rekha. She gets Rs 4,500 per month as unemployment allowance in lieu of four-hour daily internship at a government office. The couple too have received an Annapurna Food packet and have a subsidised gas cylinder.
Internship under Mukhyamantri Yuva Sambal Yojana: Between January 1, 2022 and January 15, 2023, 1.67 lakh eligible persons had done internship in state government offices.
