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And now it is Mulayam's turn for a sari mela in U.P.

Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: After "Kanya Vidya Dhan" cheques for young girls, unemployment allowance for the jobless youth and monthly pension for Emergency detenus, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is now going to distribute two saris each to nearly 1.25 crore women living below poverty line.

The populist programme, which is being seen by political observers here as yet another pre-election sop by the Chief Minister in the run-up to the UP polls due early next year, will begin after Diwali.

The saris will be distributed at special camps to be organised at block, tehsil and district levels.

Women living Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Antyodaya ration card holders above the age of 18 years will be entitled to sporting the "Samajwadi" saris. The colour of the saris is yet to be decided.

The beneficiaries will be selected by a committee to be set up in each district by the District Magistrates. Modalities are being worked out with the help of the State Food and Civil Supplies Department that has been named the nodal agency for selecting the beneficiaries. It is mandatory for the poor women to possess either BPL or Antyodaya ration cards to become eligible for the free gift.

A separate budgetary allocation of Rs. 250 crores for distributing the saris has been made in the second Supplementary Grants for 2006-2007 that was passed by the State Assembly a fortnight ago.

Mr. Yadav had himself announced earlier that he intended to distribute saris to women living below poverty line in the urban as well as rural areas. Sari distribution by the Chief Ministers of some southern States had provided the inspiration to the U.P. Chief Minister to launch a similar populist measure here.

Following the go-ahead by the State Cabinet this week, the State Mahila Kalyan Vibhag (Women's Welfare Department) has been entrusted with the responsibility of procuring the saris through an open tender. Earlier, the department had gone in for bulk purchase of saris from manufacturers in Surat and Tamil Nadu. However, the manufacturers expressed their inability to provide 2.5 crore saris before Diwali. This led the State Government to procure the saris through tenders.

Mahila Kalyan Vibhag sources said the cost of one sari has been worked out at Rs. 90, which means that the sari distribution exercise would entail a cost of Rs. 180 per head for the Government.

According to the data available with the Food and Civil Supplies Department, the number of BPL ration card holders in the State is around 66 lakh. In addition, there are about 40 lakh Antvodaya card holders, which adds up to about 1.1 crore BPL and Antvodaya card holders.

Sari distribution exercises in the State earlier have been laced with tragedies. On April 14, 2004, 22 women were killed in a stampede at a sari distribution function at Chandra Shekhar Azad Park in Lucknow on the birthday of the Leader of the Opposition, Lalji Tandon.

The tragedy occurred at a time when the model code of conduct for the 2004 Lok Sabha elections was in force.

This time round, Minister of State for Women's Welfare Rajendra Singh Rana, told The Hindu on Tuesday, "foolproof arrangements would be made to ensure that the distribution of saris passes off smoothly".

After all, he added, the distribution of Kanya Vidya Dhan cheques and unemployment allowance had been a smooth affair so there is no reason to believe there would be problems in distributing saris. "A system has been evolved wherein the beneficiaries would be given tokens before they are given the saris."

He said this was the Samajwadi Party Government's way of honouring the poor women.

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And now it is Mulayam's turn for a sari mela in U.P.

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