The manifesto war between Chhattisgarh’s key political parties in the poll fray — the BJP and the Congress — has schemes trying to simply indulge in one-upmanship to woo the electorate.
While the Congress promises paddy procurement at the support price of Rs 2,000 per quintal (out of which Rs 500 per quintal will be paid directly to the female member of the respective farmer), the BJP went ahead and announced in its manifesto to shell out Rs 2,100 per quintal as support price to the farmers and an annual bonus of Rs 300 per quintal to the farmers.
While the Congress and the BJP have promised to offer free power supply to irrigation pumps of upto 5 HP to farmers, the former promises granting ‘special power tariff relief’ for use of power in agriculture, households and smaller vocations.
The Congress promises to halve the the rate of existing water tax and integrated tax in the urban areas, the BJP intends to re-determine tax under its ‘Nal Jal Yojana’. However, the Congress also intends to charge nothing for new connection under Bhagirathi Tap Water Scheme besides abolishing the tax on open plots.
While the BJP promises to bring down the rate of rice provided to the poor from Rs 2 kg to Rs 1 per kg, the Congress promises to provide monthly 35 kgs of rice free of cost to all the Above Poverty line (APl) and Below Poverty line (BPl) families (except Income Tax Payee) . The Congress promises to implement ‘Same pay for Same work’ for Shikshakarmis while the BJP promises to build houses for the teachers and employees of Education Department near Government schools.
The Congress promises abolishment of fee for candidates appearing in competitive exams for Government services and also fee charged for exams conducted by VYAPAM , the BJP promises to distribute free tablets and laptops to all students entering first year of college in the State.
The Congress while promising to fill all the vacant posts in Government departments and clear the backlog by conducting regular recruitment drives so that educated unemployed youth of the State could get opportunity of Government job, the BJP has promised filling up the vacant positions for all Government departments by direct recruitment of youth.
The Congress promises to deposit the fee of girls taking up non technical/ professional higher education courses directly in the accounts of the respective colleges, the BJP promises complete fee waiver for girls till the level of graduation.