BJP panel to chart path for party-ruled states

Top CMs, others convene today to chart 'best practices' that govts under it should pursue in the run-up to 2019 polls

Chief Ministers of three of the more prominent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states, along with some key party leaders,  meet in Bhopal on Monday to prepare a programme for all nine party-ruled administrations.

The committee in this regard, chaired by Shivraj Singh Chouhan (pictured), chief minister of Madhya Pradesh has his counterparts from Jharkhand and Maharashtra, Raghubar Das and Devendra Fadnavis, beside Party Vice-President and Rajya Sabha Member Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.

The panel was formed at the prodding of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the BJP chief ministers’ meet here on August 27. At the meeting, the PM and party chief Amit Shah urged BJP-ruled states to implement pro-poor, pro-worker and pro-farmer policies.

It tasked the coordination committee to study the best practices in party-ruled states and make a report. All BJP states will then be asked to follow these. The BJP is keen to project itself as a party that believes in ‘antyodaya’, of working for the poorest, and good governance.

The committee needs to present its report to party chief Shah at the yearly BJP national council meeting. This time, it is being held in Kozhikode, Kerala, from September 23 to 25.

Monday’s meeting would identify the best social welfare schemes from each BJP-ruled state. The focus would be on poverty alleviation schemes from administrations where the BJP has been in power for more than one term. Economic policies that have helped people at large and improvements in agriculture will be shared.

Madhya Pradesh’s Chouhan heads the committee because during his tenure the state implemented several social welfare schemes in 11 years. Flagship ones like the Laadli Laxmi Yojana, Mukhyamantri Teertha Darshan Yojana, Mukhyamantri Kanyadaan Yojana and Public Service Delivery Guarantee Act were all mentioned by the PM at the August 27 meeting.

Similarly, the committee is likely to ask other states to learn from Maharashtra’s irrigation scheme, particularly digging of wells in water-scarce areas like Vidarbha and from the public distribution system in Chhattisgarh.

Also, sources said, MP’s public service guarantee law, enacted in 2010, is one that other BJP-ruled states could be asked to replicate. The Act’s aim is to ensure delivery of basic public services to citizens within a stipulated time frame, with accountability mechanisms for failure to do so.

Under this law, 52 public services like issuing of caste, birth, marriage and domicile certificates, drinking water connections, ration cards and copies of land records have been notified. A time period has been fixed for delivery of each service. If officials fail to do so, they are to be fined from Rs 250 a day to a maximum of Rs 5,000.

Under the state’s Laadli Laxmi Yojana, National Savings Certificates worth Rs 6,000 are purchased by the government at the time of the birth of a girl child. Girl students are also given Rs 2,000 on getting admission in class VI, Rs 4,000 on getting admission in class IX and Rs 7,500 on admission in class XI. When she attains the age of 21, the state government gives the girl Rs 1 lakh.

And, the state’s Teertha Darshan Yojana facilitates the visit of senior citizens to places of religious worship across India, at state expense.