If the Congress party retains power and leads the next government at the Centre, the provision of 25 kg rice or wheat at highly subsidised rate for the poor will be one of the first decisions on its economic agenda.
“The Indian National Congress pledges that every BPL family, either in rural or urban areas, will be entitled by law to 25 kg of rice or wheat per month at Rs 3 per kg,” its manifesto reads.
“This scheme may be implemented at the earliest along with the expansion of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), a senior Congress leader told Business Standard.
The party plans to provide “at least 100 days of work at a real wage of Rs 100 a day for everyone” as an entitlement under the NREGA. Currently, the scheme is limited to one person per below poverty line (BPL) family in the rural areas.
“The new government will have to present a full Budget very soon and if we come to power, our government might take that opportunity to launch the scheme,” he added. For this purpose, the party will also enact a National Food Security Act soon after coming back to power.
Another Congress leader pointed out that the key UPA ally in Tamil Nadu — the DMK — had promised a similar deal for the ration card holders in that state in the last Assembly polls. “As soon as Karunanidhi was sworn in as the chief minister, the first thing he did was to start the scheme,” said the leader. Karunanidhi initially priced the food grain at Rs 2, eventually the price was further reduced to just Re 1 last year.
Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh was keen to expand the scheme even during his tenure. But highly placed sources in the ministry claim that the prime minister wanted to plug all the loopholes of the current scheme before going ahead with the expansion.
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There is also a proposal to include agricultural work in the realm of the NREGS. Currently, only non-agricultural manual jobs are allowed under the flagship programme of the UPA.
The Congress top leadership also claims maintaining the high GDP growth rate will certainly be a priority area of the new govern-ment.