The ruling Congress in Rajasthan on October 27 unveiled five new guarantees for the people of the State, making a promise that the party would implement them if voted back to power in the coming Assembly elections. The guarantees included a Chhattisgarh-like godhan scheme, in which the State government would purchase cow dung at ₹2 per kg from cattle rearers.
Announcing the guarantees at a press conference here, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said even Prime Minister Narendra Modi was following the “guarantee model” of the Congress government in a testimony of its efficacy. “We have won people’s confidence by fulfilling our earlier promises... Trust has become another name of the Congress,” he said.
In addition to the godhan scheme, other guarantees were legislation on the Old Pension Scheme, laptop computers or tablets for government college students, free school education in English medium and ₹15 lakh insurance cover for losses in natural calamities. Mr. Gehlot said more announcements would be made in the Congress’s election manifesto to be released shortly.
The five guarantees were in addition to the two guarantees made at an election rally addressed by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at Jhunjhunu on Wednesday. They were an annual honorarium of ₹10,000 in instalments to women heading the households and providing cooking gas cylinders at ₹500 to 1.05 crore families. The scheme was earlier applicable to the BPL families and Ujjwala Scheme beneficiaries.
Statutory status
The Chief Minister said a statutory status for the Old Pension Scheme would ensure that no government in future stopped the benefit for the superannuated government employees. The State government would organise guarantee camps in all the 200 Assembly constituencies on the lines of inflation relief camps, held earlier this year, and distribute guarantee cards to the people.
Mr. Gehlot said the Congress government had fulfilled the promise made by party leader Rahul Gandhi to waive farmers’ loans within a few days after being elected in 2018. “Our guarantees are the bare minimum which will be delivered to the people when we form the government. We wish to do more than this,” he said.
