With Thursday’s victory, Narendra Modi joins a rare league of chief ministers who have won three consecutive elections, a feat that even stalwarts such as Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra and Digvijaya Singh in Madhya Pradesh could not manage.
In a hat-trick, the third term is always the trickier and the tougher one. Modi’s job begins only now: implementing the promises of development: multi-billion dollar packages for tribals, specialty hospitals and the vision of turning Gujarat into a knowledge society, according to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) manifesto.
Implementation will begin right away, according to officials close to Modi.
One of the most ambitious targets includes bringing the drop-out rates in schools to zero. “Having achieved 100 per cent enrolment in primary schools and after decreasing the dropout ratio to two per cent, we will now bring the dropout rate to zero and stabilise it at that level. Further, through initiatives like Gunotsav, we will bring qualitative improvements in education,” the manifesto says.
“All dams of Saurashtra will be filled with Narmada water in next three years under the ‘Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation (SAUNI) Yojana’ at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore,” the manifesto says. A further Rs 61,000 crore will be spent on coastal and tribal area packages.
“For the next five years, we have already introduced ambitious packages of Rs 40,000 crore for the tribals and Rs 21,000 crore for the coastal people. By rigorous implementation of these packages, we will ensure the development of these regions gets at par with other developed areas of Gujarat,”the manifesto further read.
The Gujarat government will not stop at that. It will also build you homes. Mukhymantishri Grih Samrudhhi Yojana, which is estimated to cost Rs 33,000 crore, is likely to be off the block soon under a dedicated department headed by the CM himself.
The government will build 2.8 million in rural areas and a further 2.2 million in urban areas. These will be in “well-developed colonies with good basic amenities.” To be regulated byan independent regulator, the housing scheme has plans for different interest groups such as slum dwellers, industrial labourers, low and middle income groups etc.
If there are houses, then there must be drainage. “P hase wise and timebound implementation of underground drainage schemes in all urban areas” will cost the government another Rs. 4,000 crore.
The urban power gets a package of Rs 25,000 crore under the “Saheri garib Samruddhi Yojana.” The government also will work on building urban transport and other infrastructure including a Rs 15,000 crore allocation to build the Ahemadabad Metro.
If it sticks to the plans, the Modi-led BJP government would have spent an estimated Rs 3 lakh crore on various welfare plans by 2017. The Manifesto, however did not say where it would get this money from.
MODI 3.0 in numbers
Total planned expenditure: Rs 3 lakh crore
Tribal Package: Rs 40,000 crore
Coastal areas package: Rs 21,000 crore
'Saurashtra Narmada Avtaran Irrigation ( SAUNI ) Yojana' (Narmada water): Rs 10,000 crore
Mukhymantishri Grih Samrudhhi Yojana (Housing): Rs 33,000 crore
Underground drainage scheme: Rs. 4,000 crore
Ahmedabad Metro: Rs 15,000 Crore
“Saheri garib Samruddhi Yojana” Urban poor : Rs 25,000 crore
Source: BJP Sankalp Patra
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