Amid the logjam in the Parliament and urgency on the part of the Congress to brace for a number of state elections this year, the Centre is mulling fast-tracking the execution of the politically sensitive legislation on food security, land acquisition and direct benefit transfer (DBT). The urgency on the part of the Congress is also for the fact that the ruling alliance is seeking to replicate the electoral success of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in 2009.
“Amid the impasse in the Parliament, there is a little scope of the two critical legislation on food security and land acquisition getting the approval from both the Houses. The government will require a minimum of six months to get the provisions of the two legislation visible on the ground, after getting the go-ahead. Therefore, the time is running out for the government,” sources said.
The government is apparently concerned for the reason that the MGNREGA is losing its appeal among the people, while the roll out of the DBT scheme has not all been smooth.
“The MGNREGA is not going to fetch votes in the next elections, as was the case in 2009. The rollout of the DBT is clogged with a lot of procedural issues. Therefore, the government has to act urgently to design a package central to which would essentially be the food security and land acquisition provisions,” added the sources.
Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh had coined the slogan “aapka paisa aapke haath (your money in your hand) for the DBT, which was later picked by the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in one of the “war-room” meeting at the Gurdwara Raqabganj office where he had termed it as a “game-changer” if it could be smoothly implemented. However, the Aadhar coverage still being an issue, the government is finding it tough to cover whole of the country by the year-end as was earlier planned.
The Centre is also working overtime to expedite the fund distribution to the states for flagship schemes, including the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) and Indira Awas Yojna (IAY), so as to be politically up front on hitting the campaign trail with pro-poor positioning in contrast to BJP’s pro-industry image.