By IANS
Raipur : With an eye on assembly polls later this year, Chhattisgarh’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has smothered the state’s 15 cities with saffron flags and banners on the eve of the launch Wednesday of a scheme to provide rice at Rs.3 a kg to 3.4 million poor families, at an annual outlay of Rs.8 billion ($206 million).
As many as 15 top ranking BJP leaders including party president Rajnath Singh and chief ministers of BJP-ruled states will launch the Rs.8 billion a year Chief Minister’s Food Security Scheme at 15 cities simultaneously.
The state’s Revenue and Forest Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said the scheme would cover about 12 million people from 3.4 million families. The state has a population of 20.08 million.
The main opposition party Congress has described the scheme “a poll gimmick and an exercise aimed to get over fast sagging public image of the BJP government.”
Mineral-rich Chhattisgarh will go to polls for the 90-member state assembly in November this year.
The BJP has covered 15 cities of the state – Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Durg, Ambikapur, Janjgir, Rajnandgaon, Raigarh, Baikunthpur, Dhamtari, Mahasamund, Kanker, Kawardha, Jashpur and Maoist-insurgency hit Dantewada – with saffron flags, banners and posters.
Party president Rajnath Singh, senior leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Venkaiah Naidu, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Dattatreya Bandaru, Sushil Modi, Arjun Munda, Gopinath Munde, Ravi Shankar Prasad besides Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Uttarakhand Chief Minister B.C. Khanduri will launch the scheme simultaneously at 12 noon at 15 district headquarters.