Now, as the payback time for the Congress-led State Government has arrived in the wake of two consecutive electoral triumphs — first in the Assembly by-polls and then in the just concluded panchayat polls — the Harish Rawat government has decided to go for providing a slew of sops to keep the State’s electorate tethered to the ruling party for the Assembly elections slated in 2017.
To begin with, the State Government is learnt to have resolved to cover the farmers above 60 years of age under a welfare scheme christened as Kishan Pension Scheme that would be launched on August 15. The farmers above 60 years of age, not possessing more than two hectares of cultivable land, would be entitled to avail the proposed pension scheme, it is learnt.
Besides, as per the Government's norms, the peasants whose principal occupation is agriculture would be the beneficiaries of the welfare scheme.
The Chief Secretary Shubhash Kumar thorough video conferencing on Wednesday have directed the officials concerned of the Nainital district administration to identify the eligible farmers so that the Kisan Pension Scheme could be started from the stipulated date. He is also reported to have given direction to them to identify 100 farmers by the date. The eligible farmers who wish to avail the Kisan Pension Scheme may have to submit bank account numbers, mobile numbers and documents for verification of identity along with the application forms, the officials concerned informed.
In a bid to ensure proper implementation of this popular scheme, the State Government has made the social welfare department as nodal agency. At the same time, several officials from agriculture, rural development, horticulture and sugarcane departments have been entrusted with the task of identifying the beneficiaries of the scheme from every panchayat area.
Meanwhile, keeping in view the importance of the scheme, the Nainital district administration has directed the chief agriculture officer, Nainital to complete the farmer identification process by August 11. The proposed Kisan Pension Scheme is likely to strike favourable chords in the people as the majority of the State’s population earns living through cultivation with little opportunity left for branching out to other avenues of livelihood.
More importantly, since only a small segment of the farmers possesses more than two hectares of land in the state a majority of them are likely to come under the proposed pension scheme. However, success of this scheme would depend on how the officials concerned would implement it in the coming days, keeping the peasants’ interests above bureaucratic hindrances and political browbeating, the observers said.