K'taka CM Siddaramaiah gears up for 'guarantee' work

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah huddled with top officials Monday ahead of the June 1 Cabinet meeting when there is likely to be some clarity on the Congress’ five guarantees, whose implementation is expected to cost Rs 52,000 crore and will be a litmus test for the party.

Siddaramaiah's meeting came after Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot approved the final list of portfolios midnight Sunday.

The government is under tremendous pressure to roll out the five guarantees that helped the Congress storm to power in the Assembly polls.

Three out of five guarantee-linked departments have been given to senior lawmakers - Ramalinga Reddy (transport), K J George (energy) and K H Muniyappa (food & civil supplies).

Comparatively junior lawmakers Dr Sharanaprakash Patil (skill development) and Laxmi Hebbalkar (women & child development) will be involved in two other guarantees.

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It was said there was some resistance among lawmakers in taking up guarantee-linked departments.

The Gruha Lakshmi scheme, which is believed to have brought votes of women in a big way, involves paying Rs 2,000 per month to "each and every" woman head of a household. This will come under Hebbalkar.

For BPL women alone, it is estimated to cost Rs 24,000 crore annually. However, authorities are undecided on defining the beneficiary. For example, should an earning woman get the benefit?

Siddaramaiah, the finance minister, was told that the the Gruha Jyoti scheme of 200 units free power, which comes under George, will require an estimated Rs 12,038 crore. The scheme is expected to benefit 2.14 crore households whose power consumption is estimated at 13,575 million units annually.

The Anna Bhagya scheme would cost over Rs 10,000 crore to provide 10 kg free rice a month to every member of 1.27 crore BPL households. This will be overseen by Muniyappa.

The least amount of cash outgo will be for Yuva Nidhi (unemployment allowance), which will cost the government an estimated Rs 1,200 crore. Unemployed graduates will get Rs 3,000 and diploma holders Rs 1,500 a month for two years. Here again, the government is figuring out how to define the beneficiary. The scheme will be routed through Dr Patil's skill development department.

Authorities are also working out details on the Shakti scheme - free bus travel for women.

Siddaramaiah has convened a meeting of the guarantee-linked ministers on Wednesday.

A confident D K Shivakumar, the Deputy Chief Minister, said the government is a "responsible" one and the guarantees would be fulfilled. However, he did not specify any timeline for the implementation of the schemes.