Sections of ministers have pitched for refining the Congress party’s guarantee schemes to make them more targeted and eliminate the creamy layer. The state government may consider the demand after taking up a survey across the state to hear the feedback from beneficiaries, according to sources.
Two senior ministers had talks with the AICC leaders in Delhi on Tuesday and argued for the need for tweaking some of the programmes, while conveying similar sentiments from the ruling party MLAs. They urged the AICC leadership to discuss with chief minister Siddaramaiah and deputy CM DK Shivakumar and align the programme to access only the low-income group families.
The concerns of some MLAs stem from the fact that the availability of funds to take up development work in their constituencies has become scarce as the government has committed upwards of Rs 52,000 crore to fund the five guarantee programmes in the fiscal year 2024-25.
The government has, since July 1, increased wages for the government employees as per an award by the seventh pay commission, inviting a further burden of Rs 20,208 crore.
There is also an opinion among sections of Congress MLAs that many middle class voters took benefits of the programme but did not vote for the Congress in the recent Lok Sabha polls. The Congress, riding on the popularity and wide acceptance of guarantees, was hopeful of getting 15 out of 28 LS seats, but ended up with nine seats.
Drawing up tight guidelines on eligibility could weed out middle class beneficiaries and save up to Rs 20,000 crore a year, which could be diverted for other development programmes, according to sources in the ruling party.
Some leaders have also argued that mere welfare programmes may not guarantee an election victory, citing the example of YSR Congress led by Jagan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, which was decimated in the recent assembly polls.
A few MLAs have questioned the structure of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme offering Rs 2000 every month to a woman member of a family. They want the government to come up with guidelines for enrolment under the scheme.
Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, in a chat with the media, said there had been complaints that even many taxpayers were taking the benefits and the government would look into them. “We are thinking of introducing identity cards for beneficiaries of guarantee schemes,” he said.
Shivakumar, however, denied that sections of the Congress MLAs were unhappy over lack of funds for development.
