Ahead of 2024 polls, govt pushes for expansion of welfare schemes

Kisan Rin Portal, the digital platform, aims at helping farmers avail subsidised loans under the Kisan Credit Card

The Central government is trying to accelerate the coverage of its flagship welfare programmes ahead of the 2024 elections, and announced a few of them on September 19.

Those launched included the Kisan Rin Portal, a door-to-door Ghar Ghar Kisan Credit Card (KCC) campaign and a manual of the Weather Information Network Data Systems (WINDS).

Kisan Rin Portal, a digital platform, aims at helping farmers avail subsidised loans under the Kisan Credit Card (KCC). It will offer a comprehensive view of farmer data, scheme utilisation progress, loan disbursement specifics, and interest subvention claims to increase seamless integration with banks for more effective and efficient agriculture credit.

The Ghar Ghar Kisan Credit Card (KCC) Abhiyaan, will ensure that every farmer in India has access to the benefits of the Kisan Credit Card scheme. This campaign may be termed a broader effort to achieve universal financial inclusion for farmers and facilitate their access to credit facilities.

Meanwhile, the WINDS system will provide stakeholders with actionable insights related to weather conditions. This information will be helpful for farmers and others involved in agriculture. A report by Business Standard stated that the Centre has disbursed agri-credit of around Rs 6,573 crore at a subsidised interest rate during April-August this fiscal year.

According to a Hindustan Times report, ministries are being pushed to utilise their budgets for 2023-24 as soon as possible so as to avoid a crowding of the budgets in the run-up to March 2024, the end of the financial year. The report stated that analysts feel the 2024 election may also be another motive.

According to the report by Hindu Businessline, the 3rd National Conference of Chief Secretaries will have convened in October, where the implementation status of all these schemes in states and Union Territories will be evaluated. Five Ministries — Housing and Urban Development, Power, Drinking Water and School Education — directly linked to people’s wellbeing are being nudged to display their performance before Lok Sabha elections.

Media reports also stated that among the efforts underway is a drive to add another 70 million families to its 100 million-strong flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat in the next few months.

The saturation of flagship projects, such as Ayushman Bharat, the government’s health insurance scheme, PM Awas Yojna (rural), the housing scheme, and the Jal Jeevan mission, which aims to provide piped water to hundreds of millions of households, hold the key to the creation of individual beneficiaries. This section has become an important vote bank for the BJP.