With an eye on the polls early next year in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP will undertake an extra drive to ensure that the 27 Centrally-sponsored schemes and the budget plans for the State are implemented at the earliest, failing which it will “convey to the people” how the Akhilesh Yadav dispensation was a stumbling block “rather than a facilitator”.
looking at the one-year time available to the party, the MPs and Ministers of the BJP have been asked to make use of the new district-level committees called DISHA, formed by the Centre, to speed up fructification of the Central projects like ‘Krishi Bima’, MNREGA, ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’, ‘Kanya Vidya’, rural electrification, irrigations and others in the State which “may be the biggest campaigner for the BJP in the elections”.
“The Prime Minister wants benefits of these schemes to reach the people as soon as possible and for this the State Government has to cooperate”, said Bhartendra Singh, BJP MP from Bijnore, Western Uttar Pradesh. The MP said the State Government led by Samajwadi Party (SP) “is purposely not allowing the Centrally-sponsored schemes to make fast progress in the State.” He maintained that this was particularly true of the western part of UP. ‘Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna’ too has also not moved ahead in the State (on account of the State Government), the MP claimed.
Giving an example, Singh said that under the ‘Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana’, the flagship programme of the Ministry of Power, the Centre seeks to facilitate 24 X7 supply of power in the rural areas in the country. For this to happen, Singh said the electricity poles have to be erected by the State electricity department.
According to the Central Government, this scheme will initiate much awaited reforms in the rural areas. DISHA (District Infrastructure Scheme Advisory) committees are headed by sitting senior-most MPs of the lok Sabha with the District Collector, Block Development Officers, panchayat representatives on its board. To begin with, these committees are monitoring schemes run by the Power Ministry and subsequently to deal with projects of other ministries too.
The development plank as reflected in the flagship programmes and Rsthe rural and farmer-oriented schemes’ as announced in the Union budget on February 29 are to be made the vote catching instrument of the party, sources said. “Prime Minister Modi is for vote-to-vote campaign and not just booth-to-booth”, party leaders said.
BJP MPs from UP met here on March 23 and discussed issues relating to poll preparations in the day-long interaction. The party which will announce its chief ministerial candidate and a new State president in the run-up to the 2017 Assembly elections, may allow “full play” to its ‘weighty leaders’ in their respective regions of influence to maximize the return in line “with Haryana experiment”, claimed sources.