 "Election Commission")
The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and the Congress on Monday hit out at each other after the Election Commission (EC) withdrew its permission to the Telangana government to disburse instalments of its Rythu Bandhu scheme. The Model Code of Conduct is in force in Telangana, which goes to poll on Thursday.
On November 25, the EC had allowed the Telangana government to transfer financial aid to farmers for rabi crops as it was an ongoing scheme and instalments were disbursed during October-January in the past five years. It, however, asked the EC not to publicise the issue until the poll code was in place.
However, the poll panel revoked its order after the state finance minister violated the model code by making a public announcement about it.
The Congress had moved the EC on Sunday demanding that the panel halt the disbursement of instalments by the BRS government during the duration of the poll code.
“When this money is supposed to be released any time between October and January, it was the BRS’ desperation that compelled them to make such irresponsible statements,” Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal said after EC’s order on Monday.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao blamed the Congress for the EC’s withdrawal of permission and said the instalment would be deposited once the BRS returns to power after December 3.
The BRS government launched the Rythu Bandhu scheme in 2018, under which the government provides input support to landholding farmers of Rs 10,000 per acre annually. The Congress, the principal Opposition party in the state, has promised to increase this support to Rs 15,000 per acre under its proposed Rythu Bharosa. The BRS has also committed that its government, if it were to return to power, will increase the amount to Rs 16,000 over the next five years.
More From This Section
In its letter to the state chief electoral officer, the EC said Finance, Health and Family Welfare Minister T Harish Rao had “not only violated the model code of conduct provisions but also conditions laid down as above by publicising the release under the scheme, and, thereby, disturbed the level playing field in the ongoing election process”.
The number of beneficiaries currently under the Rythu Bandhu scheme is 7 million, and the state government allocated Rs 15,000 crore in its 2023 Budget for the scheme.
In another development, following a complaint by the Bharatiya Janata Party, the EC said publication of advertisements by the Congress government in Karnataka of its “welfare schemes and achievements” in the newspapers published in the poll-going state of Telangana was a “gross violation” of the poll panel's instructions dated October 2013.
The EC said it had taken “a serious view" of the violation by the Karnataka government. It ordered the Karnataka government to explain the circumstances that led to the violation, which should reach the Commission by 5 pm on Tuesday, stop further publication of such advertisements in Telangana without the approval and explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against concerned officials who violated the model code of conduct.
