By IANS
Raipur : With an eye to the 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.
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 ($206 million) a year Chief Minister’s Food Security Scheme at 15 cities simultaneously.
Chief Minister Raman Singh told a press conference Tuesday the scheme would cover about 12 million people from 3.4 million families. The state has a population of 20.08 million.
“It’s a massive food scheme. The state government will do everything to ensure the subsidised rice packets reach the targeted people,” Singh told newsmen. Issuing a stern warning against hoarders and black marketers, Singh said, “Such persons will be jailed under the Essential Commodities Act”.
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.”
The mineral-rich Chhattisgarh will elect its new members to 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.