The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : BJP promise: raising eligibility limit of BPL families to Rs. 60,000

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Friday, Apr 25, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

BJP promise: raising eligibility limit of BPL families to Rs. 60,000

Special Correspondent

Party releases manifesto, ‘Vow for a prosperous Karnataka’

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Promises aplenty: (From left) BJP leaders B.S. Yeddyurappa, Arun Jaitley and H.N. Ananth Kumar releasing the party’s manifesto in Bangalore on Thursday.

BANGALORE: In a bid to woo the electorate, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday promised to increase the upper limit of income for below poverty line families from the present Rs. 11,800 to Rs. 60,000 a year if it is voted to power in the State.

The BJP, which released its 48-page election manifesto titled “Vow for a prosperous Karnataka” on Thursday, with a declaration to put the State on a fast track of development, also promised to give a status of “extremely poor” to those families having an annual income of less than Rs. 30,000. The BJP, which is the first major political party in the State to come out with a full-fledged manifesto for the coming polls, claimed that such an increase in the income level with respect to eligibility criteria would help a large number of poor families to avail the benefits of various welfare schemes.

Promise

The party promised to set up cyber cafés in every village in an effort to take IT to rural areas. These cafes will be set up at community halls which will have a colour TV and computer with internet to facilitate flow of information on agriculture, weather and prices, besides education and entertainment.

Like the Congress, the BJP, too, has promised to provide rice at the rate of Rs. 2 a kg to “extremely poor” families and offered to extend farm loans at an interest rate of 3 per cent. It has also promised to provide houses to 15 lakh poor families in the next five years and to waive loans under Ashraya housing scheme. It assured the unemployed youth of imparting skill development training with a monthly stipend of Rs. 1,500 a month. It promises to formulate a land acquisition policy to ensure that farmers get right prices for farm lands during acquisitions and that the acquisition process takes place in a transparent way. It also promised to amend the Karnataka Land Revenue Act to delete the provision that makes it mandatory to take the permission from the authorities concerned for the conversion of agricultural land for non agricultural purposes and also to delete the provisions, which have imposed certain restrictions on the sale of agricultural land.

Free power

It has proposed to provide free power to all the 16 lakh irrigation pumpsets (with a specified capacity of below HP) in the State; to set up a revolving fund of Rs. 500 crore to support farmers during price-crash situation and to provide an assistance of Rs. 2 per litre of milk to dairy farmers.

The party announced a slew of proposals for poor women, including, free education till degree to all women, an assistance of Rs. 1,000 for hospitalised delivery, monthly pension of Rs. 400 to divorced women and widows, increasing the maturity value of bonds under the Bhagya Lakshmi scheme from the present Rs. 34,000 to Rs. one lakh, monetary assistance for mass marriages and mobile phones to self-help groups, mahila mandals and youth clubs.

The manifesto promised to invest Rs one lakh crore in the next five years on basic infrastructure like drinking water, roads, irrigation and power sector. Rs. 25,000 crore would be invested on improving the road connectivity by setting up an appropriate authority.

The party also promised to increase the state’s installed power capacity to 10,000 MW in the next five years besides encouraging private investors in the power generation sector and setting up separate rural grids to improve power supply situation in villages on the lines of Gujarat.

Releasing the manifesto, BJP National General Secretary and Karnataka poll in-charge Arun Jaitley said the manifesto would be an agenda for the future governance if the party came to power and also an antidote for the “misrule” of the United Progressive Alliance.

Defending the promises to increase the income limit for poverty definition and issue of subsidised foodgrain, he said such a measure was a must to combat the price-rise situation that has resulted during the UPA rule.

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