As MP election nears, CM Chouhan's focus is on all sections of society

With Assembly elections approaching, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s focus is on all sections of society.

Recently Chouhan announced increasing the honorarium of local-government functionaries -- from sarpanch to panchayat secretary -- three times.

It is being considered a strategic move because most of the seats in Madhya Pradesh are in rural areas.

Earlier, the salary of rural employment assistants was doubled and announcements have been made to provide equal facilities to all contractual workers as they are for regular employees.

Political analyst Saji Thomas said “former chief minister and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has announced if the Congress comes to power, the rights of people’s representatives -- from gram panchayat to district panchayat -- will be increased as before and panchayati raj will be further strengthened. This announcement of the BJP government should be considered a reply to the Congress.”

Thomas said the state government was facing financial difficulties and this increase would put an additional financial burden of about Rs. 56 crore on it every year.

The state government has also announced adding two parameters to the “Ladli Behna Yojana” from July. Now 21-year-old women who have less than 5 acres and tractors in their families have also been included in this scheme.

Govt raises DA for staffers to 42% 
 

Around 750,000 government employees of Madhya Pradesh will now get 42 per cent dearness allowance (DA) like their central government peers retrospective effect from January 1. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh on Friday said the employees would get the increased DA in three equal instalments starting with the salary in July.