By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 1: The BJP in the state intends to address the age-old problem of central schemes not reaching the beneficiaries through the Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra.
In one of its reports, the Comptroller and Auditor General had mentioned how people are missing out on the benefits of central schemes.
“The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Yatra is the whole idea of having this. The mobile vans are going to interior villages and telling people that they are entitled to these schemes and registration is being done. This means the villagers need not go to the block offices or travel 20-30 km through this Yatra,” state BJP’s chief spokesperson Mariahom Kharkrang said on Friday.
From time to time, the BJP leadership highlights how the Centre-sponsored schemes are not being implemented adequately in the state, resulting in the citizens losing out on the benefits.
Stating that the Yatra is being held across the state, Kharkrang said, “It is because of this Yatra that the needy people came to know about the various central government schemes and numerous people could take advantage of them.”
“Through this Yatra, the government is reaching out to the people who need basic amenities like sanitation facilities, financial services, LPG connections, housing, food security, healthcare and other benefits. People are being educated about various schemes. Enrolment for most of the schemes is done on the spot,” he added.
The BJP leader said the central government is also learning from the citizens in the process so that further schemes can be worked out or the existing ones can be improved. He claimed that no government in the past tried to reach out to the people in this manner.
Kharkrang said the Yatra has nothing to do with next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
“Maybe, the central government feels there are more people to reach out to and they realised that there are genuine reasons why these people cannot be reached out to. That is why, we are now going to them,” he said.
He added that he does not have the statistics as to how many people have benefited by the Yatra as the programme is ongoing.