Kerala’s Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had in June last received the UN global Award for Public Service for his much-publicised Mass Contact Programme being held all over the State but it is now clear that the events thus organised had become a huge burden on the Exchequer when compared to the aid he had been distributing through them.
The State’s Congress-led UDF Government spent over Rs 4.32 crore for organising the CM’s Mass Contact Programmes in various districts in 2012 but the total amount he had spent as relief to the beneficiaries at the venues of these events totalled only Rs 24.24 crore which meant that he had been spending over Re 1 for every Rs 6 he distributed as aid.
As per a document accessed from the Government through the RTI Act route by George Sebastian, general secretary of the Kerala Congress (PC Thomas), there were no established rules, procedures or criteria for identifying cases that deserved such aid but it was entirely the Chief Minister’s prerogative to select the beneficiaries from the applications he received.
Critics of Chandy allege that he has been spending crores of rupees belonging to the public in the name of the programme in order to boost his personal and political image while the purpose of the programme could be fulfilled without spending any money for organising such ‘service extravaganza’ if he could give effective instructions to the bureaucracy.
“In short, he is doing the job of an attendant of a Treasury office,” said a State-level office-bearer of the NGO Union, the service organisation of the CPI(M). “But the problem is that he is spending crores of rupees to boost his image through the programme which even his own partymen are not finding appropriate,” he said.
The highest amount paid last year as relief allocation to beneficiaries in one district was Rs 3.63 crore in Pathanamthitta and in the second position was Idukki with Rs 3.21 crore. The lowest amount distributed in a district was in Kozhikode and the amount was Rs 34.5 lakh. Thousands of people used to gather for the Mass Contact Programmes.