Terming the attack on the State government’s guarantee schemes as “not only unkind, ill-informed and misleading, but also totally insensitive to the poor”, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Sunday said that these schemes were implemented with total transparency as eligible people receive the benefits directly, with no scope of any leakages or unfair practices.
“Within a year of its implementation, the Human Development Index has risen to 0.7 and malnutrition rates in vulnerable districts have dropped by 15%. Women’s participation in the economy has surged by 10%.
Skilled employment among youth has risen by 12%,” the Deputy Chief Minister said in a release. His statement comes amidst, what the Congress has accused the BJP of spreading, “misleading information” on guarantees in the Maharashtra election campaigns. “The programmes were not just another election-eve dole outs.
Their (guarantees) rollout marked a decisive shift from a growth-centric model of development to a welfare-centric model of development,” he said. Describing the guarantee schemes as “possibly the world’s largest welfare delivery programme”, he said that the schemes - totalling to about ₹56,000 crore - are being implemented without any interruption, and are generating economic energy at the bottom of the pyramid. The allocation to guarantees in the Budget is 15%, he said, adding that it had to be seen in the light of relentless price rise, unemployment, and farm distress, i.