Ahead of the crucial meeting of the State Cabinet on Thursday to decide on the method of implementation of poll guarantee schemes, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has convened a meeting of Ministers on Wednesday.
The Chief minister, who held a meeting of Principal Secretaries of the departments concerned, asked them to prepare a report on the implementation of the ‘guarantees’.
Wednesday’s meeting with Ministers is being seen as an exercise to take them into confidence before making the crucial decision on implementation of guarantees at the Cabinet meeting.
The government is already facing attack from the Opposition over the “delay” in implementation of guarantees, including free power of 200 units to every household, monthly allowance of ₹2,000 to women heads of families, free bus travel for women, stipend for unemployed youth, and distribution of 10 kg of rice per family per month.
The government is said to be in a fix over implementation of these guarantees due to huge financial burden. While several prominent leaders, including the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, have already hinted at confining most of the guarantees to BPL families, the Opposition has termed this as “hoodwinking voters”.
The Opposition is gearing up to use the opportunity to launch a campaign against the government. Some MLAs from the Opposition camp have even asked people not to pay electricity bills to put pressure on the government to extend the guarantees without imposing conditions.
