A day after promising farm loan waiver and higher MSP for farm produce, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday promised fixed salaries for village heads besides direct funds for panchayats if his party was voted to power in Gujarat.
He said that every village panchayat in the State would get a yearly development grant of ₹10 lakh to develop infrastructure and civic amenities in the villages as part of his pre-poll guarantees to the people of the State.
On Saturday, he launched the Aam Aadmi Party’s guarantee registration portal in Rajkot and addressed a conclave of village heads or sarpanches in Surendranagar as he stepped up the campaign for the Assembly polls to be held in December this year.
An AAP government will provide a salary of ₹10,000 per month for the sarpanch and ₹10 lakh for the village panchayat per year which would be transferred directly by the State government.
He also said that Village Computer Entrepreneurs (VCEs) who work on commission basis will also get a salary of ₹20,000.
“A sarpanch wins an election in his village and people like and respect him. He is the leader of his village. After winning the election, the sarpanch spends money from his pocket because he has no funds for the work people want him to do,” Mr. Kejriwal said at the townhall event in Surendranagar in Saurashtra region.
When a sarpanch approaches an MLA or district official seeking funds, ask for “commission,” the AAP leader said.
Every panchayat will get ₹10 lakh directly from the government so that a sarpanch does not have to beg for funds for minor works related to water supply, roads or sanitation.
“All these promises will be fulfilled before February 28 next year,” Mr. Kejriwal added, suggesting that the AAP, if voted to power, would implement the guarantees announced before the Assembly polls within a month of forming the government.
An AAP government will also start a school and ‘mohalla clinic’ in each of the 18,000 village panchayats in Gujarat.
He added that in the party-ruled Punjab 100 mohalla clinics were opened in the first 75 days and all villages will get one in the next two or three years. He appealed to sarpanchas and VCEs to promote the AAP in their villages.
“Had people been happy with the BJP, you would not have come to listen to us in this hall. Wherever I go (in Gujarat), a large number of people turn up because they are fed up with the ruling party and their hooliganism. People see a new hope in AAP,” he said.
Mr Kejriwal also stressed that if an election were to be held in Delhi today, the AAP will get more than 65 seats in the national capital.
In Rajkot, he claimed that the AAP is sure of winning seven of 12 Assembly seats in Surat city and therefore the BJP leaders and their cadres feel rattled with growing popularity and reach of the AAP in Gujarat.
To challenge the BJP in its strongest bastion and native State of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the AAP has set its eyes in Gujarat and has been working to make inroads in Saurashtra region where the BJP had suffered electorally in 2017.
Spearheading a AAP campaign, Mr. Kejriwal has so far visited Rajkot, Jamnagar, Somnath, Porbandar, Surendranagar and Dwarka in Saurashtra region while Palanpur, Mehsana and Ahmedabad in North Gujarat.
