RAJ KAMAL SINGH, a small-time taxi operator hailing from Bareilly, is an enthusiastic supporter of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Every election, he "organises" at least 50 votes for the party, rallying his friends and relatives. "I have done this for nearly two decades and have been quite satisfied with my own performance," he told Frontline. But during the local body elections last October he was subjected to a kind of "shock treatment" by his two daughters, both first-time voters. Not taken in by their father's persuasive skills, the girls voted for the Samajwadi Party (S.P.) candidate.
What upset the family tradition of supporting the BJP was a populist development programme, Kanya Vidhyadhan Yojana (educational grant for young women), introduced by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government. "All politicians talk about empowering women, but here is somebody who has actually done something for us," the girls argued with their father. Soon other female members of the family began to accept this view, so much so that even Raj Kamal Singh is beginning to sway from his firm conviction.
The KVY envisages a financial grant of Rs.20,000 to every girl student who passes the 12th standard examination of the State board. The programme was launched in 2004 with an allocation of Rs.200 crore. The grant was increased to Rs.300 crore in 2005 and to Rs.600 crore in 2006. Over the last two years, the Chief Minister has held public programmes in all the districts to distribute cheques to thousands of girl students, inviting criticism from Opposition parties. The Bahujan Samaj Party, the Congress and the BJP have criticised the government for blatantly misusing a social welfare programme for political propaganda.
Another complaint was that a large number of beneficiaries were ineligible for the grant. In March 2005, the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India pointed out that a proper survey had not been done to identify the beneficiaries. The government, on its part, claimed that the discrepancies were removed and the implementation was made foolproof.
Yet there is little doubt that the KVY has been the most popular social welfare programme introduced during the three and half years of S.P. rule. However, other initiatives of the government too have won accolades. Programmes such as free education up to Class 12 and reduction in hospital registration charges to Re.1 have evoked positive responses. However, it is felt that the free education scheme is not supported by required infrastructure and teaching staff.
Another widely appreciated achievement of the Mulayam Singh government is the stabilisation of sugarcane prices. Across western Uttar Pradesh, one of the State's major sugarcane-producing areas, farmers agree that the government's intervention in the sector to introduce partial corporatisation has indeed had positive results. "Not only do we get one of the best prices in the country, but the government's scheme of assigning particular mills to particular fields has had other creative benefits too," said Dharamveer, a farmer from Murad Nagar. Dharamveer pointed out that the direct involvement of the mills had resulted in the mills sending agricultural experts to observe the fields and give advice at the right time to harvest and crush. Moreover, this scheme has also ensured regular payment. In the past, farmers had to wait for four to five years to get payment from government agencies.
The Chief Minister said the S.P. government had acquired the financial strength to launch many welfare and development programmes on account of its strict fiscal management. He said the State had achieved a revenue surplus for the first time in 19 years and this had resulted in a 49 per cent jump in Plan expenditure.
"This is indeed a big turnaround from the high-deficit situation the State faced in the past decade and a half." Mulayam Singh added that the debt service component of the State revenue had galloped from 13 per cent in 1985-86 to 32 per cent in 1997-98 and 37 per cent in 1998-99, and it was this situation that was turned around. Revenue collection in 2005-06 was Rs.19,606 crore compared to Rs.16,051 crore in 2004-05. Mulayam Singh added that capital investment increased by approximately Rs.5,000 crore in 2006-07 and the State registered a reasonably healthy growth rate of 6 per cent since 2005-06.
Officials in the Chief Minister's Secretariat say that the revenue surplus naturally led to an increase in capital spending, and that it was particularly visible in the improved quality of the State's roads.
The BJP and even sections of the bureaucracy attribute the fiscal turnaround to the measures taken by the Kalyan Singh-led BJP government in 1998. The S.P. government only carried forward those measures, they argue.
Venkitesh RamakrishnanCOMMents
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