KOCHI: The row over the distribution of free rice to schoolchildren and free grocery equipment to all ration card holders is a repeat of the developments that occurred in 2011 and 2016 forward of then meeting polls. On each events, the then oppositions discovered fault with the federal government’s undue haste in distributing freebies to voters forward of election.
In 2011, V S Achuthanandan authorities introduced rice at Rs 2 per kg for all ration card holders with out APL/BPL distinction. The choice was taken within the cupboard assembly held on February 23, 2011, which was the final full-fledged assembly held earlier than the notification of the meeting election. Actually, the federal government issued hasty orders to make sure that the distribution of subsidised rice wouldn’t be hit by the mannequin code of conduct.
Nonetheless, the election fee vetoed the choice after the then opposition chief Oommen Chandy raised a flag towards the intention of the federal government. The fee’s order was challenged within the Excessive Court docket by CPI chief after which MLA Rajaji Mathew Thomas.
The division bench led by Justice J Chelameswar quashed the EC order and allowed the federal government to implement the scheme, by noting that the choice and different steps for implementing the scheme have been taken earlier than March 1, 2011, when the mannequin code of conduct got here into impact.
In 2016, the election fee discovered fault with the Oommen Chandy authorities’s resolution to supply free rice to all BPL households within the state. The choice was introduced within the finances that 12 months and likewise mandatory orders have been issued earlier than the mannequin code of conduct got here into power. Nonetheless, the then chief electoral officer E Okay Majhi advised the federal government that the scheme couldn’t be launched as a brand new scheme as notification for election has been issued.
The federal government then forwarded all recordsdata to the fee and determined to strategy the Excessive Court docket towards the order. On the eve of going to the courtroom, the fee cleared the proposal after receiving authorized recommendation that the 2011 order by Justice J Chelameswar was binding for this resolution too. The fee had laid out a number of strictures together with not including any new beneficiary to the scheme or not promoting the scheme as an achievement of the federal government through the marketing campaign whereas clearing the proposal. Curiously, the then CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was supportive of the EC’s resolution.
“Oommen Chandy is illiberal to the Election Fee. His authorities can be generally known as the primary to tackle the Election Fee which solely questioned its wrongdoings,” Pinarayi had stated throughout an election marketing campaign assembly in Kozhikode then.
As his function reversed to the chief minister, Pinarayi is now discovering fault with Opposition chief Ramesh Chennithala, alleging a bid by him to cease the distribution of meals to the needy. In 2011, V S Achuthanandan sought a public apology from Oommen Chandy after the Excessive Court docket cleared the Rs 2 rice scheme for attempting to sabotage the scheme.
Together with the distribution of free rice beneath the noon-meal scheme to schoolchildren, the LDF Authorities has made all preparations to complete the distribution of the Ramzan-Vishu free grocery equipment earlier than April 6, the polling day. The choice to start out distribution within the final week of March, which was now modified to April 1, was to make sure that most variety of households would obtain the equipment earlier than D-Day. Preparations have been additionally made to supply two months’ social welfare pension of Rs 3,100 – together with Rs 1,500 for March and the revised Rs 1,600 for April – to almost 50 lakh beneficiaries. For streamlining the fund circulate, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac convened a gathering of the Finance Division and Treasury officers on March 19.
The state has borrowed Rs 8,000 crore by auctioning bonds this month for facilitating the sleek distribution of all welfare schemes. The extra income within the state’s coffers will even assist it present revised pay for presidency staff and revised pension for state authorities staff within the first week of April itself. The March-19 assembly convened by Isaac had additionally determined to make Good Friday and Easter as working days for treasuries in order that wage and pension are distributed earlier than the polling day. Christian staff might be given restricted holidays on each days.
