The State government has finally gone ahead with its ‘free
talk time’ scheme which will place a burden of `1 crore
per month on the exchequer. The ostensible aim of the
scheme is to provide rural youth with internet connectivity
at 3G or 4G speeds, but it would not be incorrect to
state that the real intention behind it is to woo young voters to the
BJP. This scheme, which is supposed to run for a period of three
years will place a total burden of `36 crore on the government.
Goa has the second highest per capita income in the country and
an economic growth rate of nearly 8 per cent per annum. So the
question that arises is whether the youth really require free internet
data SIM cards? Did the government undertake any study
to ascertain the economic status of the intended beneficiaries?
Or will this scheme be extended to all and sundry, even if they
happen to fall in high income brackets? The information technology
department has no data on how many people own mobile
phones and how many of them possess smartphones. Goa
is serviced by at least three major telecom
companies and the fourth has
just announced free services till the
end of December. Competition in the
market has driven down 4G rates to
more affordable levels and the government
should have considered
all these factors before offering free
services to gain votes at taxpayers’
expense. There is merit in providing
services to people who cannot afford
them, but giving freebies to people
can easily pay for them is a criminal waste of funds.
This tendency to give freebies to citizens without an economic
condition has forced other political parties to jump on to the
bandwagon. Since benefits of this nature cannot be withdrawn,
the next government is stuck with a bill of over `1,000 crore by
way of doles. This is a legacy of the BJP which first launched the
cyberage scheme to provide free computers to all students with
no clear aim. For the present financial year, the government has
set aside `40 crore to provide laptops to students -- more as a gift
than a learning tool.
Gifts of this nature cannot be withdrawn and in all probability,
the list will get longer as political parties compete with each
other to please the electorate. The government is short of funds
and had to take a loan of `450 crore from NABARD to build a
third bridge across the Mandovi. This has taken up the cost of the
bridge (with interest) to nearly `850 crore. The government had
to delay payment of Seventh Pay salaries because it is running
out of funds for the current year. And yet it continues to launch
schemes that will eventually turn Goa into a beggar State with
citizens begging for more and more. This is a distorted and corrupted
version of a welfare state.
