CONNECTIVITY ISSUES

The Congress will have to iron out the initial bumps in its '5G’ promise way ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls

- PRATHIMA NANDAKUMAR

The Congress government has hit the ground running, thanks to its ‘5G’ card that propelled it to power in Karnataka. While factors like anti-incumbency, shift in Vokkaliga and Lingayat votes, and consolidation of OBC, dalit and Muslim votes worked in its favour, it was the promise of five guarantee (freebies) schemes that helped the Congress sweep the polls.

The five guarantees are: 200 units of free power to every household every month under Gruha Jyothi Yojana; 10 kilos of free rice to every member of every family below poverty line under Anna Bhagya Yojana; free bus travel for women under Shakti Yojana; financial assistance of ₹2,000 per month to housewives under Gruha Laxmi Yojana; and ₹3,000 to graduates and ₹1,500 to diploma holders as monthly unemployment benefit under Yuva Nidhi Yojana.

The freebies were announced with much fanfare during the election campaign. And, Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar had handed out signed copies of the guarantee card to every household, saying the schemes would be implemented soon after the first cabinet meeting. But the entire exercise is proving to be a daunting task. Two cabinet meetings down, the government is struggling to identify genuine beneficiaries. Moreover, the schemes would cost the state exchequer about ₹56,000 crore every year.

During the polls, the door-to-door distribution of ‘5G’ cards had unnerved the BJP, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to say that the promise of freebies would drown the state in debt. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah declared that the first cabinet meeting had given “in-principle approval” to the five guarantee schemes. In response to Modi’s jibe, he said that the country’s debt burden had increased by ₹103 lakh crore under the Modi government.