Senior ministers were quick to declare the schematics ahead of the voting panel announcement.
Chennai:
At least two of the five states forced to vote today rushed to announce populist schemes hours before the election dates were announced. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal introduced a number of policy changes apparently directed at electoral prospects. The model code of conduct, which takes effect immediately after the Election Commission declares the election dates, prohibits governments from making new welfare announcements to minimize any undue advantage accrued to ruling parties.
The Commission is expected to hold a press conference today at around 4.30pm to announce the dates of the assembly elections in Kerala, Puducherry and Assam, as well as West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Introducing an increase for daily wage workers under the West Bengal Urban Employment Scheme, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted today that up to 56,500 workers (40,500 unskilled, 8,000 semi-skilled and 8,000 skilled) will benefit from this. .
I am pleased to announce an increase in salaries for salaried workers under the WB Urban Employment Plan:
> At ₹ 202 per day from ₹ 144 before for unskilled labor
> At ₹ 303 from ₹ 172 before for semi-skilled
> ₹ 404 for skilled labor (new category introduced)
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– Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 26, 2021
Earlier in the day, Tamil Nadu’s chief minister, E Palaniswami, made his own populist statement: Gold loans against up to six sovereigns given by cooperative banks to farmers and the poor will be exempted.
Justifying the move, he said the economy had not yet recovered from Covid-19 and this would help the poor to redeem the gold they had promised during the shutdown.
The low interest rate gold loan schemes were offered by the Tamil Nadu State Cooperative Bank of Apex as part of the pandemic relief measures. The interest rate has been set at 6 percent per year.
In this, people could get 25,000 to 100,000 rupees and the loan had to be repaid in three months.
Previously, the Chief Minister had announced a similar exemption of up to 12 billion rupees in agricultural loans granted to more than 16 lakh farmers. At the state assembly, Palaniswami said it was his first duty to address complaints from the farming community.
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