The Madhya Pradesh Congress on Tuesday appealed to the Election Commission to dissuade the State government from attempting to “entice voters” by planning disbursal of monetary support during a special week in view of the byelections pending in 27 Assembly seats.
The party wrote to the State Chief Election Officer accusing the BJP of planning to distribute “crores of rupees” during the ‘Gareeb Kalyan Saptah’ (Poor’s welfare week) starting September 17. It contended this was despite the week not being a part of the official calendar.
The government planned to distribute milk at anganwadi centres, land titles under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, benefit under crop insurance scheme, loan to self-help groups and rural street vendors and kisan credit cards to beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi among other planned disbursals.
“The BJP government is pro-poor,” said State party spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal. “The planned week is entirely legal and it’s our duty to serve the poor. The election dates have not yet been declared, so why this fuss already?” He accused the previous Congress regime of scuttling welfare schemes started by the BJP government earlier.
