BJP announces Rs 10,000 annually for landless agri workers in Chhattisgarh

Amid buzz that the Centre was considering an income support scheme for landless tenant farmers and agriculture labourers, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has promised Rs 10,000 annually for Chhattisgarh’s landless agricultural labourers, a key commitment of its 47-page manifesto that Union Home Minister Amit Shah unveiled in Raipur on Friday.

The BJP’s manifesto, titled “Modi’s guarantees for Chhattisgarh”, matched the ruling Congress’ “17 guarantees” for the state sop for sop. The Congress, which is yet to release its manifesto, has also promised Rs 10,000 annually to landless agricultural labourers in the state. The BJP has named its scheme as the Deendayal Upadhyay Krishi Mazdoor Kalyan Yojana. In poll-bound Telangana, the Congress has promised Rs 15,000 per year to farmers and tenant farmers and Rs 12,000 to agricultural labourers yearly.

Currently, the Centre’s Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) gives Rs 6,000 a year as minimum income support to small and marginal farmers, but it does not cover landless tenant farmers or agricultural labourers. Only Odisha’s KALIA, or Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation, and Andhra Pradesh’s Rythu Bharosa provide some assistance to landless tenant farmers.

Replicating the Ladli Bahna scheme of the neighbouring BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, Shah said the BJP, if it were to form the government in Chhattisgarh, would annually hand out Rs 12,000 to all married women in the state as part of its Mahtari Vandan Scheme. The BJP’s Chhattisgarh manifesto has also promised free laptops/tablets to college students and Rs 2,000 annual support to street vendors.

In Chhattisgarh, the BJP joined the Congress in what has come to be termed “paddy procurement politics”. Shah said “the BJP’s double-engine government” in Raipur would purchase 21 quintal paddy per acre from farmers at Rs 3,100 per quintal.

The Centre had recently hiked the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy to Rs 2,183 per quintal. In its last Cabinet meeting in September end, before the model code of conduct kicked in, the Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government announced procuring 20 quintals of paddy per acre at Rs 2,500 per quintal. The Congress has announced it would procure 20 quintals per acre at Rs 3,000 per quintal if it were to return to power. The Congress had delivered on its promise of procuring paddy at Rs 2,500 per quintal in the 2018 Assembly polls when the MSP for that year was Rs 1,900.

Subsequently, once the Centre refused to buy rice from states that paid above the MSP that the Union government paid, the Baghel government launched the Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana, through which it currently delivers an input subsidy of Rs 9,000 per acre in four instalments, or Rs 600 per quintal for 15 quintals that it procured per acre. In poll-bound Telangana, the Congress has promised Rs 500 per quintal for paddy in addition to the MSP.

The BJP’s other promises included providing cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 each for poor families, filling 100,000 vacant government posts in two years, subsidised pilgrimage to Ram temple in Ayodhya, monthly travel allowance to college students through direct benefit transfer and constructing 1.8 million houses under the PM Awas Yojana, free school education and introduce a ‘free breakfast scheme’, in addition to the existing ‘free midday meal scheme’ for students of classes first to eighth of government schools. The BJP said its government would set up a Rs 150 crore agriculture input price stabilisation fund and Rs 5 lakh insurance for farmers and landless agriculture labourers.

Of the Congress’ guarantees, the notable ones announced are cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500 each, 200 units of electricity free, farm loan waiver, waiving off Rs 726 crore of motor vehicle tax for 6,600 vehicle owners and introducing free education in government-run English-medium schools.

Despite the welfare schemes of the successive governments in Chhattisgarh, the state has maintained a revenue surplus. Chhattisgarh’s debt, at nearly 24 per cent of its gross state domestic product (GSDP), under the Baghel government, is manageable although higher than the sub-20 per cent level during the previous Raman Singh-led BJP government. The state adopted the Old Pension Scheme on April 1, 2022, which could worsen its debt-to-GSDP ratio because of pension liabilities, but the impact will be evident around 2034 when employees who joined in 2004 begin retiring.

At the launch of the manifesto, Shah accused Baghel of running a corrupt government, which had become an “ATM for the Congress high command”. On the Congress guarantees in the state for conducting a caste Census, Shah said: “The BJP has never opposed this (caste Census), but decisions have to be taken very thoughtfully. We will tell at the appropriate time.” Addressing a public meeting in Chhattisgarh, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, on PM Narendra Modi’s description of Baghel government as a “30 per cent commission” government, said the Congress ousted the BJP’s “40 per cent commission” government in Karnataka.