At a time when every state in India is busy devising ways to overcome the Covid-triggered economic crisis, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Assam government has decided to spend thousands of crores on schemes that are seen as pre-election sops. Assembly polls in the state are due in April-May 2021.
Interestingly, the same party had accused the previous Congress government of indulging in “xuta, kambal, athua” (weaving thread, blanket and mosquito net) politics to lure the economically weaker sections in the run-up to the 2016 state elections.
The BJP government’s latest move also raises concern as the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has recently flagged that the budgetary assumptions of Assam government were “not realistic” in 2018-19 and various policy initiatives were not fulfilled due to “non-completion preparatory activities relating to these initiatives”.
In its audit report, the CAG has said, “Supplementary grants/ appropriations were obtained without adequate justification, and large amounts were expended without budgetary provision. Despite flagging this issue every year over the last several years, the State Government had failed to take corrective measures in this regard.”
It’s Raining Sops
The Sarbananda Sonowal government has decided to roll out “Orunodoi” scheme on October 2 to provide financial assistance to 17 lakh families. Under this, a family with below Rs 2 lakh annual income will receive Rs 830 per month, which will be directly transferred to its account. This will cost the government Rs 210 crore per month, according to state Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The next in line is Swami Vivekananda Assam Youth Empowerment (SVAYEM) scheme, under which self-help groups (SHGs), joint liability groups (JLGs), farmers’ producer organisations (FPOs) will be provided with seed fund. The government will spend Rs 1,000 crore in the next three months, and around two lakh youths will get Rs 50,000 each, Sarma said.
Students who have availed educational loan to pursue higher education will also be covered. A total of 5,547 applicants will get a one-time subsidy of Rs 50,000 each, and the government would end up spending an additional Rs 250 crore on this.
Eyeing Tea Garden Votes
Needless to say, tea garden workers are a major vote-bank in upper Assam. There are around 800 tea estates spread across seven districts. To woo them, the BJP government will roll out a Rs 250 crore scheme, under which Rs 3,000 will be transferred to the accounts of each of 8 lakh tea garden workers.
Traditionally with the Congress, the tea garden voters have started shifting towards the saffron party in the past six years. In the 2014 general elections, the BJP had bagged four out of five Lok Sabha seats that have around 40 per cent of tea tribe population. The party managed to repeat the trend in 2019 as well.
In the 2016 assembly polls, the BJP grabbed 18 out of 23 seats with a sizeable presence of tea workers’ population. And the ruling party seems to have come out with a major scheme in order to retain all these seats.
Opposition Slams Govt
The Congress has lambasted the spendthrift BJP, alleging that the Sonowal government does not have money to offer free treatment to Covid patients, but it is ready take thousands of crores of rupees as loans to provide election sops.
The grand old party has also demanded a white paper from the ruling BJP on the schemes announced recently.
“The people of Assam must know as to how the schemes announced would be financed given the financial crunch claimed by the state government. Or are these announcements a ploy to woo voters ahead of the elections?” Assam Pradesh Congress Committee president Ripun Bora said at a press conference in Guwahati last week.
Bora also said a Supreme Court order clearly mentions that the states must bear the entire cost of Covid-19 patients. “However, the health minister (Sarma) has not paid any heed,” he alleged.
For its part, the government said that there was a proper planning, and that funds were earmarked for the welfare schemes.
Earlier this month, the Assam assembly passed a bill to allow the state government to borrow an additional 2.5 per cent (around Rs 10,200 crore) of its GDP for 2020-21, in view of the state’s “highly-stressed” fiscal situation.
The Centre had in May increased the borrowing limit of states from 3 per cent of the GSDP to 5 per cent for 2020-21 in order to help them overcome the Covid-19 crisis.
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